CUTANEOUS TUBERCULOSIS IN BLACKBURN DISTRICT (UK) - A 15-YEAR PROSPECTIVE SERIES, 1981-95

Data collected prospectively on all 1065 cases of tuberculosis occurri ng in the Blackburn district, U.K. (population 265,000), over a 15-yea r period have been analysed, and from these 47 cases of cutaneous tube rculosis have been identified. The most common form was scrofuloderma, skin involvement with adjacent structural disease, of which there wer e 26 cases (55.3%). There was no ethnic bias in this group, The eight white patients with scrofuloderma were of average age 66 years, and ar e thought to represent reactivation disease. Six patients (12.8%) had lupus vulgaris, four (8.5%) had metastatic tuberculosis and 10 (21.3%) were diagnosed as having one of the tuberculides, of which Bazin's di sease (erythema induratum) was the most common. In addition, one patie nt (2.2%) had orificial tuberculosis, In contrast to scrofuloderma, al l other forms of cutaneous tuberculosis occurred almost exclusively in patients from the Indian Subcontinent (ISC), The high incidence of tu berculosis in Blackburn is mainly linked to its significant proportion of residents of ISC ethnic origin. There were no cases of HIV infecti on coexisting with either cutaneous or other forms of tuberculosis, Re commendations for the treatment of cutaneous tuberculosis are made.