SETTING: In the Cape Town suburbs of Ravensmead and Uitsig, tuberculosis has reached epidemic levels, with notifications of 1340/100000 in 1996. These suburbs are characterised by overcrowding, high unemployment and poverty. It is traditionally believed that tuberculosis transmission takes place mainly in households after close contact with an infectious person. Studies have recently linked tuberculosis transmission to locations outside the household, and have associated these places with a particular high-risk lifestyle. Anthropological studies in some suburbs of Cape Town, in which a very high number of local drinking places (shebeens) were identified (17 per km2), have suggested that social drinking is part of such a lifestyle.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate various risk factors and places of transmission of tuberculosis using a geographical information system (GIS).
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The 1128 bacteriologically-proven cases of tuberculosis studied over the period 1993–1998 were investigated using spatial epidemiological techniques of exploratory disease mapping. Point pattern analysis and spatial statistics indicated clustering of cases in the areas of high incidence. Significant associations of tuberculosis notifications were found with unemployment, overcrowding and number of shebeens per enumerator sub-district. High tuberculosis notifications with unemployment and its associated poverty emerged as the strongest association.