The most striking finding was that a large proportion of TB patients did not present consistent cough. Passive case finding is the routine practice in developing countries where sputum microscopy is performed to identify TB cases among people with persistent cough. A large proportion of TB cases may be missed using this method as 53% of bacteriologically confirmed cases and 45% sputum positive cases in this study had no persistent cough but were identified through abnormal CXRAY. Nearly half of bacteriologically confirmed cases reported no symptoms in the last six months. This finding, although initially surprising, is consistent with reports from Vietnam (47% of bacteriologically confirmed cases not presenting persistent cough) [14], Myanmar (38%) and Ethiopia (48%) [13]. CXRAY was sensitive in detecting TB cases, as yields of bacteriologically confirmed cases were much higher by CXRAY compared with by symptom screening, as reported in Vietnam [15] and some high HIV prevalence settings [16, 17]. CXRAY, though expensive at the initial installment, may improve TB case finding due to its short turnover time and high throughput [18]. Our findings suggest that the strategy of case finding using CXRAY followed by sputum or culture as the primary and secondary screening tests could be more effective, especially among the population of over 65 year olds, as the yields were higher in over 65’s compared with the general population. Although using CXRAY to examine everyone is not feasible, it can be used in routine elder physical examinations. The China public health package now covers free CXRAY for elders, as well annual employee body examinations provided free CXRAY.
In this survey, only one sputum positive patient had been detected and treated by the national program, though specific clinical consultation was conducted to identify any patients who have been diagnosed and treated for TB before. This may reflect the difference between the active case finding approach in the survey and the passive casing finding approach in practice. Nevertheless, it indicated that a large proportion of bacteriologically confirmed TB cases are missed by the national TB program.
Another notable change is the sharp decline of the proportion of sputum positive cases, which accounted for 30.5% of all cases in the 2000 survey but was reduced to 6.6% in the 2010 survey. The proportion of notified sputum cases out of all TB cases in Shandong also declined from 80.9% in 2005 to 64.6% in 2010 [19].
The prevalence rate of bacteriologically confirmed cases has reduced by 80% in the last decade in Shandong, compared with a national decline of 45% (from 216/ 100,000 in 2000 to 119/ 100,000 in 2010) [4]. The rapid decline of TB prevalence rate of bacteriologically confirmed cases in the recent decade may be attributed to China’s strengthened public health system following the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 [2]. Another reason may be due to improved reporting of TB cases in the online communicable disease reporting system, and the improved collaboration between public hospitals and TB dispensaries [20]. Other factors such as social economic development may also have played an important role in the reduction of TB prevalence, as found in a study of TB notification rates trends in 134 countries [21].
The adjusted prevalence rate of bacteriologically confirmed cases in Shandong was lower than the WHO estimates for China in 2010 [1]. But the national prevalence rates of bacteriologically confirmed cases, 119/100,000 in 2010 [4], was higher than the WHO estimate, 108/100,000, even the survey did not collect negative and extra-pulmonary TB cases. Vietnam reported similar findings in its 2006 survey [14]. One reason is that prevalence surveys results are based on active case finding while WHO estimates are based on notification rates from passive case finding. A re-evaluation of the reported TB prevalence in China is needed based on the recent survey.
CXRAY suggestive bacteriologically negative cases may be smear or culture negative TB cases if they had any TB symptoms, while some may be caused by suboptimal smear or culture. As reported in China’s previous surveys [3, 22], including these cases as TB cases may result in an over-estimate of all pulmonary cases [23].
The survey revealed that over half of the TB patients were 65 years and older in Shandong, while the over 65’s were more likely to present with abnormal CXRAY and persistent cough. Similar trends have been documented in other developed cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore [24]. These high rates may reflect the higher TB rates in the past and decline in immunity in the over 65’s. How to treat elders with TB and other complications such as diabetes remains an ongoing challenge in China and similar settings.
The survey results can be generalized to the Shandong population of 94 million or similar international settings with middle income and middle TB prevalence levels. The patterns of the TB epidemic found in Shandong, i.e., the proportion of patients with symptoms, ratios between urban and rural areas, men and women, were similar to those found in the national survey [4]. However, the prevalence rates cannot be extrapolated to western provinces in China with a higher TB prevalence. For logistical reasons, the eligible population did not include adults staying in the sampled clusters less than 6 months, which was the same practice in the 2000 survey. However, short-term migrants may have a potentially higher prevalence of TB than the general population [25]. This may result in a lower estimate of the true prevalence rate. The survey did not collect social-economic indicators, smoking status and HIV status of all participants, so comparisons between TB cases and all non-TB patients are not available. However, the HIV prevalence in Shandong China is below 0.01%, and would not significantly alter the TB prevalence rate. In addition, the survey did not evaluate child TB and extra pulmonary TB. Discussions of using CXRAY as a screening tool was on the technical aspect, but not on costing side as we did not conduct any cost effectiveness analysis or the social willingness to pay for such a strategy in similar settings.