Trend in childhood tuberculosis in Benin City, Nigeria.

In order to determine the trend in childhood tuberculosis, case records of children diagnosed and treated for tuberculosis between January 1981 and December 1995 at the paediatric tuberculosis clinic of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital were reviewed. Of 8,829 paediatric medical cases, 1,026 (11.6%) were managed as tuberculosis. The proportion of tuberculosis cases increased steadily over the study period from 6.9% in 1981 to 22.1% in 1995. An apparent decrease in the number of cases in 1985 (6.6%) was attributable to a strike by medical personnel. The clinical pattern of tuberculosis during the study period shifted toward the adult type with disseminated and cavitating lesions predominating in later years. Additionally, the severity of the disease increased with the incidence of both haemoptysis and finger clubbing increasing from 1.6% in 1981 to 14.2% and 18.2%, respectively, in 1995. Possible reasons for these findings include increased prevalence of malnutrition in childhood, increasing tuberculosis in the adult population and the effects of HIV/AIDS.