Missed opportunities in tuberculosis control in The Netherlands due to prioritization of contact investigations

Background: The Dutch contact investigation guidelines stipulate that Public Health Services should examine contacts around all pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients to prevent disease and further transmission. Our objective was to assess to what extent these guidelines were applied and whether patient characteristics were associated with having contacts investigated. Methods: We extracted the records of all reported pulmonary TB patients from the nationwide surveillance register covering 2006–07. Patient characteristics associated with having contacts investigated were assessed by multivariabl... Mehr ...