TB-related technical enquiries received in Japan, 2017–2019

Abstract

SETTING: Japan, an intermediate TB burden country.OBJECTIVE: To review TB-related technical enquiries received at the Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan, from January 2017 to December 2019.DESIGN: This was a cohort study.RESULTS: A total of 2,197 enquiries were analysed. On average, 61.0 enquiries/month (range: 42–81) were received. The enquiry rates were highest for the Yamanashi (4.65/100,000 population) and Ishikawa (4.55) Prefectures, and lowest in the Yamagata (0.46) and Tochigi (0.56) Prefectures. The main organisations the enquirers belonged to were local governments (n = 1,585, 72.1%) and healthcare facilities (n = 307, 14.0%). The enquirers were medical doctors (n = 391, 17.8%), nurses (n = 1,207, 54.9%), other healthcare professionals (n = 57, 2.6%), the general public (n = 168, 7.6%) and others/unknown (n = 374, 17.0%). The most frequent enquiries were about TB diagnosis and treatment (n = 501, 22.8%), including laboratory diagnosis (n = 88, 4.0%), TB treatment in general (n = 93, 4.2%) and management of comorbidities (n = 86, 3.9%), followed by contact investigations (n = 385, 17.5%) and TB in foreigners (n = 344, 15.7%).CONCLUSION: As the most frequent enquiries were about diagnosis and treatment of TB, the health ministry of Japan should maintain a few specialised TB institutions with TB physicians to provide technical assistance.