Tuberculosis and other chronic morbidity profile of sewage workers of Delhi

The Indian Journal of Tuberculosis
Kalpana Chandra, Vijay Kumar Arora

Abstract

Sewage management is hazardous due to chronic exposure to chemical gases, bioaerosols and micro-organisms through inhalation; accidental oral intake and penetration through skin or mucous membranes through injuries or breech in personal protective equipment. While there has been some research on isolated infections and multisystem symptom profiling of sewage workers, there is little research on the burden of chronic illnesses like Tuberculosis and Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). A cross sectional observational study was conducted on chronic comorbidity profile of sewage workers with more than five years of occupational experience and employed in three contiguous districts of NCT of Delhi. The study sample consisted of 104 sewage workers with mean age of 50.71 (±8.43) years, an average of 7.35 (±3.75) years of formal education and an average occupational exposure to sewage work of 21.28 (±10.54) years. 21.15% sewage workers had Tuberculosis and 92.31% had at least one of the chronic respiratory diseases (COPD, Asthma or ACOS). 85.6% of participants were smokers. The most common NCD was Hypertension (67.3%) followed by Dyslipidaemia (50%) and Diabetes Mellitus (43.3%). There was clustering of NCDs with 53.85% subjects having th...Continue Reading

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