Objective: The Osaka Socio-Medical Center Hospital is a medical care facility located in the Airin area of Osaka city where the prevalence of tuberculosis is high, and treats day laborers and homeless people mainly, either free of charge or with a small fee. To investigate whether this hospital can play a role to reduce the prevalence of tuberculosis in this area, we investigated the case rate of active tuberculosis in outpatients of the hospital.
Subjects and methods: Of 1673 patients who first visited the Orthopaedic Outpatient Clinic between March 31, 2005 and June 15, 2006, 538 patients consented to undergo screening and underwent chest X-ray examination (screening group). We also analyzed chest X-ray examination in 2000 patients examined at the Department of Internal Medicine during the same period (control group).
Results: Of the 538 patients in the screening group (523 males and 15 females), 13 male patients (2.4%) requiring treatment were detected. Of the 2000 patients in the control group, 85 patients (84 males and 1 female) (4.3%) requiring treatment were detected.
Conclusion: The tuberculosis case rate (2.4%) in the screening group was similar to that of tuberculosis screenings (1.1-1.8%) in the Airin area in 2004. The case rate in the control group was two times higher. Since the prevalence is very high in patients of this hospital, the hospital should play a significant role in the health care of tuberculosis patients in this community by reinforcing the screening system and enriching the outpatient clinic system.