Management of tuberculosis during pregnancy and puerperium

We reported 22 cases with tuberculosis in pregnancy and puerperium, who were treated in our hospital from 1993 to 2001. Nine out of 22 cases were foreign women and the onset of tuberculosis was not clear and the diagnosis tended to be delayed in most cases. In the reports from industrial countries, most of those patients are foreign bone and the delay in diagnosis is common because symptoms are apt to be mixed up those for pregnancy and puerperium. In 10 of 22 cases, extrapulmonary lesions were noted. Most of our cases were treated with INH, RFP and EB, and in some severer cases PZA was added. WHO and BTS recommend standard therapy with PZA but ATS recommends INH, RFP and EB without PZA. Generally SM is contraindicated because of adverse effect of hearing loss for all pregnant periods, and the data for PZA and other second line drugs are insufficient. Our cases and their neonates showed normal course and no malformation nor congenital tuberculosis. 2 cases could not keep adherence for drugs and 2 babies got active tuberculosis. Precaution for infection is one of most important problem to deal with cases with tuberculosis during pregnancy and postpartum in the hospital. If she is still infectious on delivery, we should consider prevention for transmission and manage her in isolated manner. CDC recommends not to treat for latent tuberculosis during pregnancy because of high frequency of hepatic damage due to INH. It is the best way to check and treat latent tuberculosis before gestation if she is at high risk with tuberculosis.