Queensland Tuberculosis Control Program (QTCP)

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  • Functions of the QTCP
• Tuberculosis (TB) patients
  • Tuberculosis (TB) information
  • Risk of TB in Queensland
  • Reducing the spread of TB
• Diagnosis of TB
  • Step 1: Make an appointment for TB tests
  • Step 2: Review test results
  • Step 3: Confirm diagnosis and treatment
  • Step 4: Start treatment and ongoing monitoring
• Other mycobacterial diseases
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  • TB screening programs
  • BCG vaccination
  • Managing TB patients
  • Clinical guidelines for treating TB
  • TB nursing management
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Risk of Tuberculosis (TB) in Queensland

Australia has one of the lowest rates of TB in the world, due to strict controls for the diagnosis and treatment of TB within our borders. Over the last ten years in Australia, there have only been between five and six cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people. In Queensland, the risk to the general public of developing TB is very low, with only three cases of TB diagnosed per 100,000 people each year.

All TB cases in Queensland are managed through the Queensland Tuberculosis Control Centre and regional TB control units.

High risk groups

• migrants from countries with high incidence of TB, people who will be travelling to or having household visitors from countries with high incidence of TB
• members of communities in which TB transmission has been recognised (these will usually have been identified by the QTBCC sporadically and informed of risk; at times, they have included Australian indigenous communities, communities of people sharing close community contact within confined spaces as a result of shared activities or institutional living, etc)
• people in contact with a person with active tuberculosis
• health care workers and other workers, who are at high risk of exposure to active undiagnosed tuberculosis
• people with compromised immune systems as a result of disease (for example HIV-related disease, immune deficiency syndromes, uncontrolled diabetes, chronic renal failure etc.), medications (for example corticosteroids and immunosuppressive therapies), or being at extreme of age (aged > 65 years or less than five years) are at much higher risk of progression to active disease if exposed to TB than the general population.

Risk of imported cases

TB is a major cause of illness and death worldwide (especially in Asia and Africa). Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacteria every second. Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with TB without having active disease (although these people are not infectious). Worldwide, 9.27 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths from TB were estimated to have occurred in 2007, of which 0.7 million cases and 0.2 million deaths were in HIV-positive people. Although the risk of developing TB in Queensland is low, it is important not to become complacent as cases can easily arise as a result of travel to or from from overseas countries where incidence of disease is very high.

High risk TB countries and communities

• all Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian nations (includes PNG)
  Indigenous peoples
       - Australia: Aboriginal & Islanders
       - USA & Canada: American Indian and Inuit
• all Asian nations (including Middle-East and Afghanistan)
• all African nations
• Central and South American nations
• Romania, former USSR and former Yugoslavia
• refugees from all countries.
  

Image source: World Health Organization, 2009. Global Tuberculosis Control 2009 Epidemiology, Strategy, Finance.