Abstrakt

Tuberculosis in children in a hospital in the Suburbs of Dakar, Senegal

Jean Baptiste Diouf, Khadime Sylla, Amadou Lamine Fall

Introduction: Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem in Senegal despite all the means used to deal with this disease. In an attempt to strengthen tuberculosis control in children, it was envisaged to undertake this study, the main objective of which was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and evolutionary profile of tuberculosis cases, all types taken together, in children monitored at the Centre hospitalier Roi Baudouin de Guédiawaye. Materials and methods: A descriptive retrospective study was carried out from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014 in the Centre hospitalier Roi Baudouin de Guédiawaye located in the Dakar suburbs. Tuberculosis cases diagnosed in children during the reporting period were compiled from patient records specially designed for this purpose. The data was entered on Excel and the analysis was done using Stata IC 12 software. Results: A total of 121 new cases of tuberculosis were reported in children during the study period. The average age of the children was 10.84 years. The study population was predominantly female (52.89%). Pulmonary location was more frequent with 70.25% of cases. Extra pulmonary locations were mainly represented by lymph node (30.55%), osteoarticular (16.67%) and pleural (13.89%) forms. The bacilloscopy was positive in 47.93% of the cases. Tuberculosis was associated with HIV in 14.05% of cases. The evolution was favourable in the majority of cases and the hospital mortality was 4.96%. Conclusion: Given that childhood tuberculosis is still common and mortality high, there is need for further studies to identify the factors contributing to the fact that this epidemiological situation remains unchanged.