• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2007

Background: Korean national guidelines for examining contacts with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) are a tuberculin skin test (TST) and chest radiographs. The treatment of a latent TB infection as performed only in those younger than six years of age who test positive for TST. Although there is a high incidence of active TB in young Korean soldiers, the current national guidelines for controlling contacts with active TB in soldiers are insufficient. This study highlights the problems with the Korean guidelines for controlling a TB outbreak in a small military unit. Material and Methods: In December of 2005, there was a tuberculosis outbreak in a military unit with a total of 464 soldiers in Kyung Gi province. The chest radiographs were taken of all the soldiers, and TST were carried out on 408 candidates. Results: In the first screening of the chest radiographs, two active TB patients were detected. By August of 2006, four additional cases were detected, making a total of six cases after the outbreak. All the patients showed active pulmonary TB or TB pleuritis. When the results of TST in the close contacts and non-close contacts were compared, there was a significant difference in the absolute size of the induration($9.70{\pm}7.50mm$ vs. $6.26{\pm}7.02mm$, p<0.001) as well as the ratio of patients showing an induration > 10mm (50.0% vs. 32.0%, p<0.001) and 15mm (33.2% vs. 20.9%, p= 0.005). Conclusion: Although the national guidelines for managing a TB outbreak in a military unit were followed, there were continuous instances of new active TB cases. This highlights the need for new guidelines to prevent the spread of TB.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.253-259
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• 2001

Kikuchi's disease(histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis) is characterized by lymphadenopathy in young patients below 30 years old, and persistent fever, lymphopenia and splenomegaly are concomitantly developed in many cases. So, it has been confused with lymphoma, SLE, and tuberculosis, and has easily led to inappropriate diagnostic procedures and administration of drugs. Many reports have indicated that Kikuchi's disease should be added to the list of causes of FUO in the setting of lymphadenopathy, and recommended early lymph node biopsy to distinguish from lymphoma, SLE, and tuberculosis to avoid unnecessary treatments. We experienced a case of subacute necrotizing lymphadenitis in a 14-year-old boy who presented with persistent high fever, productive coughing and cervical lymphadenopathy for about 1 month. Initially, diagnostic workup was done to look for the causes of FUO in vain. Finally, we confirmed diagnosis by histopathological findings of lymph node biopsy and detected latent gene of EBV in the biopsied specimen using in situ hybridization.