Trends in genitourinary tuberculosis

Abstract

One thirds of world‟s population is infected with tuberculosis with new infection occurring every second. In humans tuberculosis is primarily caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Genitourinary tuberculosis (GUTB) is still a major health problem in many developing countries including India and had been declared by World Health Organization (WHO) as „public health emergency‟ in 1993. In this study medical records of 40 patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital with diagnosed genitourinary tuberculosis were accessed. Majority of patients 95% (38\40) belonged to the low socioeconomic status and came from rural setting. Besides this we found a major gender inequality: 75% were female patients This is especially relevant to rural and low socioeconomic areas in developing countries where women's health is worse than men's ( in terms of nutrition), women's risk of disease may be increased. Most of our patients were above 40 yrs of age and exhibited nonspecific symptoms like abdominal pain, distension, postprandial fullness, omitting, and constipation Specific genitourinary symptoms were few .Majority of the cases were diagnosed by histopathology and a combination of strong clinical, laboratory, and radiographic evidence of urogenital tuberculosis with negative bacilli search The sequelae of GUTB required major surgical corrections and leave significant sequelae