Tuberculosis in the elderly: Epidemiology and outcomes at JAMOT Hospital of Yaounde

Background: Tuberculosis in the elderly (TBES) compared to adult TB (TBA) has been poorly published in developing countries (developing countries).Aim and Objective: The objective of this study is to present the epidemiology of TBES and the outcome of TB patients aged 65 years or older compared to TBA. Methodology: Our study is retrospective and comparative for the period of activity from January 2008 to December 2013 at the Diagnostic and Treatment Center (CDT) at the Jamot Hospital in Yaoundé (HJY). It is compared between subjects aged 65 years and older and subjects aged 15 to 64 who have been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) Statiscal analysis: The Khi-2 test and the exact probability of Ficher were used for the comparison of proportions. A difference was considered significant if p <0.05. Results: Of the 10909 TB cases, the proportion of TBES is 2.93%. The sex ratio is 1.7 in case of TBES versus 1.5 in the TBA. The prevalence of TB-HIV co-infection is estimated at 11.3% versus 37.3% for TBA (p˂ 0000). The location is pulmonary in 76.4% of cases in TBES against 78.1% in the subject aged less than 65 years. Elderly patients developed more pulmonary tuberculosis with negative microscopy (TPM-) 12.9% versus 11.3% and extra-pulmonary tuberculosis (PET) (23.6% versus 21.9%). The therapeutic success rate in subjects aged 65 and over is 61.6% versus 70.3% in subjects under 65 years of age. The proportion of patients lost to follow-up and the rate of transfer are higher in case of TBES. Elderly patients died more frequently than young adults in the first two months of treatment. Conclusion: Tuberculosis of the elderly is rare with male predominance. The proportion of deaths is greater. The follow-up of elderly patients must integrate the therapeutic management of comorbidities