Outbreak Investigation of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in a Public Health Department in Songkhla Province

Abstract

On 21 July 2017, the Occupational Unit, Hat Yai Hospital received a report from the Public Health Department in Songkhla Province about one case of pulmonary tuberculosis in the workplace involving a male driver. The investigation confirmed that this man was the fourth tuberculosis (TB) case at this workplace, and its cause may be work-related. The first case was a female government officer, aged 52, who has infected in August 2013. The second infected case was a male driver, aged 49, and the third one was a female government officer, aged 34. All of them worked at the same workplace. This pulmonary TB outbreak may have been caused by poor indoor ventilation; chronic coughing by the second case, who was not treated; a lack of standard policy regarding the return to work of TB-infected employees; and a delay in outbreak investigation (4 years after the start of the outbreak in 2013).