[Tuberculosis in the elderly: Epidemiology and outcomes of ambulatory followed-up in Abidjan]. / La tuberculose du sujet âgé : épidémiologie et devenir des patients suivis en ambulatoire à Abidjan.

BACKGROUND: Very few works approach elderly's tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries. The aim of this study is to present elderly's TB epidemiology and the outcomes of the ambulatory follow-up of the tuberculous patients aged more than 65years old (TBE) compared to the TB among patients less than 65years old (TBY). METHODS: Our study is retrospective covering period of January 1999 to June 2006 activities of Adjamé's antituberculous center. It is a comparative study between patients of at least 65 years and patients of less than 65years when the diagnosis of TB was made. RESULTS: Among 36,923 cases of TB, the proportion of TBE is 2.33%. In case of TBE, the sex-ratio is 2.16 versus 1.50 among TBY (P<0.001). Localization of TB is pulmonary in 61.70% among TBE versus 67.26% among TBY (P=0.058). Among elderly's TB, the osteoarticular localization is more frequent. TB-VIH co-infection prevalence is estimated to 9.05% among elderly's TB versus 44.38% among patients of less than 65 years (P<0.001). The therapeutic success rate within elderly patients is 52.16% years versus 61.42% when it was patients of less than 65 years. The proportion of lost at follow-up and the rate of patient transfers within the elderly's TB are the most raised. CONCLUSION: The elderly's TB is rare with a more masculine predominance. TB-VIH co-infection is not important among elderly's TB. The aged patient follow-up must be improved.