CASE REPORT
Pulmonary tuberculosis of occupational origin in a funeral director: A case report
More details
Hide details
1
Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera / Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland (Klinika Chorób Zawodowych i Toksykologii, Oddział Chorób Zawodowych / Department of Occupational Diseases and Toxicology, Ward of Occupational Diseases)
2
Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera / Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź, Poland
(Klinika Chorób Zawodowych i Toksykologii, Oddział Toksykologii / Department of Occupational Diseases and Toxicology, Ward of Toxicology)
Corresponding author
Anna Witkowska
Oddział Chorób Zawodowych, Klinika Chorób Zawodowych i Toksykologii, Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera, ul. św. Teresy od Dzieciątka Jezus 8, 91-348 Łódź
Med Pr Work Health Saf. 2014;65(3):429-35
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
In Poland the incidence rate of tuberculosis is higher than the average for countries of the European Union, Norway or Iceland. On the other hand, occupational tuberculosis is still rarely recognized in our country. In this paper we present the first in Poland- to our best knowledge - case of pulmonary manifestation of this disease acquired at work in a funeral director. The recognition of the occupational etiology of the discussed illness gave rise to an array of diagnostic problems and became feasible after a thorough analysis of the patient's history and literature data, which allowed finding the relationship between infection and performed job. We speculated that the transfer of the dead body and handling of cadavers may expel residual air from the lungs of the deceased. Although tuberculosis occurs frequently in the general population, the recognition of work-related cases of this disease is still rare, especially among funeral directors. Med Pr 2014;65(3):429–435