Successful Handling of Disseminated BCG Disease in a Child with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency

In high-burden countries, Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is administered in newborn to prevent severe Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Because life-threatening disseminated BCG disease may occur in children with primary immunodeficiency, vaccination strategy against tuberculosis should be redefined in non-high-burden countries. We report the case of a patient with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) who developed disseminated BCG disease, highlighting the specific strategies adopted.

Investigation and Control of a Large Outbreak of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis at a Central Lisbon Hospital

An increase in the number of new cases of tuberculosis (TB) combined with poor clinical outcome was identified among HIV-infected injecting drug users attending a large HIV unit in central Lisbon. A retrospective epidemiological and laboratory study was conducted to review all newly diagnosed cases of TB from 1995 to 1996 in the HIV unit. Results showed that from 1995 to 1996, 63% (109/173) of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from HIV-infected patients were resistant to one or more anti-tuberculosis drugs; 89% (95) of these were multidrug-resistant, i.e., resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin. Eighty percent of the multidrug-resistant strains (MDR) available for restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) DNA fingerprinting clustered into one of two large clusters. Epidemiological data support the conclusion that the transmission of MDR-TB occurred among HIV-infected injecting drug users exposed to infectious TB cases on open wards in the HIV unit. Improved infection control measures on the HIV unit and the use of empirical therapy with six drugs once patients were suspected to have TB, reduced the incidence of MDR-TB from 42% of TB cases in 1996 to 11% in 1999.

Tuberculose Cutânea. A Propósito de um Caso Clínico

Apesar de a tuberculose cutânea (TBC) compreender apenas entre 0,1 a 4,4 por cento de todos os casos de tuberculose, é importante para os clínicos considerarem esta infecção quando confrontados com uma lesão cutânea de etiologia não esclarecida. Além do M. tuberculosis, também os bacilos M. bovis e Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) podem causar infecção da pele. A tuberculose cutânea “verdadeira” pode ser adquirida por via exógena (quando há inoculação directa do bacilo na pele), ou endógena, e apresenta um largo espectro de apresentações clínicas. Reportamos um caso de escrofuloderma (envolvimento da pele por contiguidade a partir de um outro foco de infecção), com linfadenite tuberculosa e envolvimento da clavícula, numa mulher imunocompetente.