Yield of contact tracing from pediatric tuberculosis index cases in Gaborone, Botswana.

SETTING

Contact tracing using pediatric index cases has not been adequately investigated in high tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence settings.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the yield of contact tracing in household contacts of pediatric TB index cases in Botswana.

DESIGN

Index cases included all pediatric (age ≤ 13 years) TB admissions from January 2009 to December 2011 to Botswana's largest referral hospital. A contact tracing team identified cases, conducted home visits, symptom-screened contacts and referred those with ≥ 1 TB symptoms. The primary outcome was newly diagnosed TB in a contact.

RESULTS

From 163 pediatric index cases, 548 contacts were screened (median 3 contacts/case, interquartile range [IQR] 2-4). Of these, 49 (9%) were referred for positive symptoms on screening and 27/49 (55%) were evaluated for active TB. Twelve new TB cases were diagnosed (12/548, 2.2%); the median age was 31 years (IQR 23-38); 11 (92%) were smear-positive. Ten (83%) had known HIV status: 7 (70%) were HIV-positive. To find one new TB case, the number needed to contact trace (index cases/new cases) was 13.6, and the number needed to screen (contacts/new cases) was 46.

CONCLUSION

This yield of contact tracing using pediatric index cases is similar to the traditional adult index case approach. Improving the proportion of symptomatic contacts evaluated may increase yield.