Author(s)

Mohammed Abu Khattab¹, Fahmi Yousef Khan², Mona Al Maslamani¹, Abdul Latif Al-Khal¹, Akram El Gendy², Hussam Al Soub¹, Faraj S. Howady¹

¹Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
²Department of Medicine, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar.

Background: There is limited information about extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) in Qatar. The aim of this study is to describe the demographic characteristics of patients with Tuberculosis (TB) in Qatar, and to compare the characteristics of EPTB with those of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB). Patients and Methods: The study was conducted at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar, from January 2005 to December 2008. It involves all cases of TB diagnosed in Qatar which do not include patients who are diagnosed by routine screening tests upon entry to state of Qatar. Results: 1221 cases of TB were reported; 654 (53.6%) were EPTB; and 567 (46.4%) were PTB. Nine hundred fifty-one (77.9%) were males and two hundred and seventy (22.1%) were females; the mean age was 32.7 ± 811.7 years; only 6.9% (84/1221) of them were Qataris. The most frequent associated condition was diabetesmellitus (DM) (30; 2.5%), and the most frequent site involved was lymph node (285 cases; 43.5%). One thousand two hundred patients continued on first-line drugs while 21 patients received second line treatment. The mean duration of antituberculous therapy was 6.7 ± 1.7 months. Hepatitis was the main drug toxicity. Eight hundred and forty seven patients (69.3%) cured and eight patients (0.7%) died, whereas the remaining three hundred and sixty-six patients (30.0%) had left the country before completing therapy. The proportion of EPTB among females was higher than males, whereas diabetes mellitus was strongly associated with PTB. Conclusion: TB is still common in Qatar with predominance of EPTB. Although male predominated, the proportion of TB, EPTB among females was higher than males.

Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Tuberculosis in Qatar

Khattab, M. , Khan, F. , Maslamani, M. , Al-Khal, A. , Gendy, A. , Soub, H. and Howady, F. (2015) Pulmonary and Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Qatar: A First Retrospective Population-Based Study. Advances in Infectious Diseases, 5, 148-153. doi: 10.4236/aid.2015.54018.