[Family contact examination for tuberculosis--the current situations and perspective].

To clarify the recent problems of family contact examination for tuberculosis, studies were conducted from August 1989 through to Mach 1990. 1) The examinations were carried out in 405 (94%) out of 431 household contacts of 119 index cases with bacillary pulmonary tuberculosis who were newly registered in 1988 in Yamagata prefecture. The contacts of smear-positive cases had a significantly higher incidence rate of active tuberculosis (4.8%) and a markedly shorter interval between discovery of the index cases and their household examinations than did the contacts of smear-negative cases (i.e. bacilli positive only on culture). 2) The study on the disease history of 129 cases with bacillary pulmonary tuberculosis, newly registered in 1988 in Yamagata, revealed that one-third of them might be have been "preventable", if the existing prevention and control methods had been effectively used. Especially, the preventable cases under 20 years of age occurred among those with inadequate family contact examinations. 3) 21 families were specially investigated because they had more than one active tuberculosis. Half of them underwent insufficient family contact examinations. It was indicated that tuberculin skin tests were necessary even to those aged 16 and above as well as to those aged 15 and below, when they were family contacts of smear-positive cases. 4) The policy and methods of family contact examination were evaluated by a mail questionnaire to 74 Health Centers in Tohoku Districts. The response rate was 95% (70/74).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)