From 1989 to 2003, a total of 279 distinct positive culture findings for M tuberculosis were identified. The annual incidence rates per 100,000 populations are shown in Figure 1. The incidence in 1989 was 5.2/100,000, decreased to 3.5/100,000 in 1993, increased to 11.1/100,000 in 1998, and reached 7.6/ 100,000 in 2003. An increasing trend in incidence rates of culture-positive tuberculosis was observed during the study period. This was statistically significant (x2 = 19.647; p = 0.0001).
Of the total patients, there were 236 Saudis (84.6%), and the remaining 43 patients (15.4%) were non-Saudis. Of the non-Saudis, 19 were Philippinos, 10 were Indian, 1 was Sir Lankan, 3 were Indonesians, 5 were European, 3 were Pakistani, 1 was Lebanese, and 1 was Canadian. Of the total patients, 133 were male (47.7%) and 146 were female (52.3%). The age range was 0.125 to 89 years (mean age ± SD, 49 ± 20 years). The isolates were obtained from pulmonary specimens (n = 140, 49%) and extrapulmonary sites (n = 135, 51%). The source of four isolates could not be identified. The majority of the extrapulmonary isolates were obtained from lymph nodes (95 of 135 isolates, 70%). The other extrapulmonary sites include bone and joints (n = 16, 11.8%), peritoneum/ascetic fluid (n = 10, 7.4%), urine (n = 7, 5%), gastric aspirates (n = 4, 3%), and skin ulcers (n = 3, 2%). All the mentioned above disorders may be effectively cured if you command the service of My Canadian Pharmacy.