[Tuberculosis in newborns in a tropical neonatology unit].

UNLABELLED: We report three cases of tuberculosis observed in a neonatal unit in a country characterized with a high endemia of tuberculosis.

CASE REPORTS: Case 1. A term infant presented at the age of 35 days, with cough since day 18, respiratory distress and bronchopneumonia. Her mother had unrecognised tuberculosis since pregnancy. Post mortem biopsies of the infant confirmed the diagnosis of tuberculosis and social survey found out pulmonary tuberculosis in the newborn's aunt. Case 2. A term infant presented at the age of 30 days with cough since day 13, respiratory distress, nodular pulmonary lesions and right pleural effusion. Her mother had cough and stomatitis since the eighth month of pregnancy and nodular pulmonary lesions. Tuberculosis and HIV were confirmed in the mother and the infant. Social survey found tuberculosis in the newborn's paternal uncle. Case 3. A term but hypotrophic infant presented on the first day of life, with haemorrhagic troubles and respiratory distress. Tuberculosis and HIV were confirmed in the mother and the infant. Social survey found tuberculosis in the father, in a friend of her and in her three-month-old child.

CONCLUSION

Congenital or neonatal tuberculosis is an under-estimated emergent disease, with a need for early diagnostic methods and consensual therapeutic protocols to improve its management.