[Epidemic trends of pulmonary tuberculosis and case finding in Henan province].

OBJECTIVE: Based on the data of the 4th national epidemiological survey in 2000 in Henan province, to obtain the trends of epidemic situation of pulmonary tuberculosis, and to analyze the methods of case finding. METHODS: The detection methods such as X-ray, sputum examination and PPD were used to diagnose active pulmonary tuberculosis from sampling population. RESULTS: The prevalence of active pulmonary tuberculosis is 497 per 100 000 population, the prevalence of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis is 132 per 100 000 population. Comparing to the third survey in 1990, the reduction rate of prevalence of smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis is 6.15%, the annual reduction rate only 0.63%, indicating the prevalence declined very slowly in ten years. The rate of case finding increased by 6.6% after sputum specimens increased from 2 to 3. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemic status of pulmonary tuberculosis in Henan is still serious, and the case finding of tuberculosis should be strengthened. Increasing the times of sputum examination from 2 to 3 can increase the rate of case finding.