Abstract
Health personnel (HP) have higher risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection during working than people in
the community. This research aims to determine TB situation among HP working in hospitals under the
Ministry of Public Health, Tak Province, fiscal year 2008 - 2016. During the study period, of an average
of 2,956 HP per year, 46 were registered for TB treatment, giving a rate of 15.6/1,000 HP. About 69.6%
of them were female and the mean age was 33.6 years old. About 71.7% were personnel responsible
mainly for patients’ management. Of all 46 TB cases, 69.5% had pulmonary TB. Overall, physicians
had the highest TB rate (38.5/1,000), followed by pharmacists/pharmacy technicians (35.1/1,000) and
nurses (17.6/1,000). Hospital personnel working in 5 districts (along Thailand-Myanmar border) of the western region of the province had a higher TB rate of all types (17.7/1,000), hospital personnel
working in the western region had a higher TB rate of pulmonary TB (13.0/1,000) than those working
in the eastern region (6.7/1,000). It is crucial to carry out early TB detection and treatment with high
successful rates among people in the communities to reduce TB spread, particularly in the western
region of Tak Province. In addition, good TB infection control should be continuously maintained in
the hospitals.
