[The background of foreign patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and investigation of treatment results].

This study focuses on the investigation of 35 foreign patients diagnosed as having pulmonary tuberculosis and treated at National Chiba-Higashi Hospital and the Chiba Anti-Tuberculosis Association between 1987 and 1991. All of the patients had lived in Japan less than five years. A large number of the patients were in their 20s. The chest X-rays of 24 cases (70%) revealed cavitary and sputum smear cultures for Mycobacterium tuberculosis were positive in 27 cases (77%). Many patients were in moderately advanced stages of the disease, becoming ill soon after their arrival in Japan, and being diagnosed symptomatically. Among the 35 cases, eight cases failed to finish treatment. Of those failing to finish, six were female and two were male. The results of sputum smear cultures of the patients failing to complete treatment revealed four cases that tested positive. Among those cases failing to complete treatment, four patients discharged themselves, three patients stopped during out-patient treatment, and one patient had to return to her home country because of a legal problem. A total of 14 patients were illegal immigrants: three of them failed to complete treatment because of their illegal status, and two of them due to unspecified reasons.