Tuberculosis Screening among Bolivian Sex Workers & Their Children

Abstract

Bolivian sex workers were more likely than other employed women to report tuberculosis screening only if they reported HIV screening. Of all women with household tuberculosis exposure, <40% reported screening for themselves or their children. Coupling tuberculosis screening with sex workers' mandatory HIV screenings may be a cost-efficient disease-control strategy.

Bolivia has the Western Hemisphere’s second highest tuberculosis (TB) incidence and prevalence [1]. The city of El Alto (population 843,934 [2]) has been recognized as a TB epicenter [3] with poor indices of disease control and detection [4]. Commercial sex workers (CSWs) have multiple TB risk factors—socioeconomic marginalization, crowded workplaces, limited healthcare access, and high HIV infection risk [5], [6] and [7]—but their TB screening practices have been described in only one study, which demonstrated under-screening among Mexican CSWs [8]. TB screening, household exposure, and disease were assessed among El Alto’s CSWs and their children by comparing them with a group of women in other professions (controls) and their children.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/ywZLp4

By:   Chiang SS¹, Paulus JK², Huang CC³, Newby PK⁴, Castellón Quiroga D⁵, Boynton-Jarrett R⁴, Antkowiak L⁶.

¹Boston University School of Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics, 850 Harrison Avenue, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, USA; Boston Children's Hospital, Department of Medicine, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: schiang@alumni.stanford.edu.

²Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Tufts Medical Center, 35 Kneeland Street, 8th-11th Floors, Boston, MA 02111, USA.

³Department of Medicine, Lahey Clinic, 41 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington, MA 01805, USA.

⁴Boston University School of Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics, 850 Harrison Avenue, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, USA.

⁵Independent Consultant, La Paz, Bolivia.

⁶Boston University School of Medicine, Division of General Pediatrics, 850 Harrison Avenue, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02118, USA; Boston Children's Hospital, Department of Medicine, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

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