Death Due to Tuberculosis in Homeless Unclaimed Population in Central Delhi-a Retrospective Study

Homeless and marginally housed people in developing countries have specific problems predisposing them to infectious diseases; have much greater risk of developing the active form of tuberculosis and much higher mortality and shorter life expectancy. India has the largest number (14 million) of TB sufferers in the world. We need to do a much better job in preventing tuberculosis from spreading in this homeless vulnerable population, and in providing timely, effective clinical care for those who are affected by this disease.

We carried out a 5 years retrospective study period between year 2006 and 2010, based on autopsy findings, in the department of forensic medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi. During this study we tried to find out the load of mortality due to tuberculosis in homeless population of central district of New Delhi (capital of India), where those unclaimed dead bodies were brought for postmortem examination, all unknown and unclaimed deaths were considered suspicion. During this 5 year period total 2773 autopsies were conducted in the morgue of LHMC, New Delhi, out of that, 749 cases (27.01%) were homeless unclaimed people. 122 deaths (16.28%) were due to pulmonary tuberculosis in homeless. The maximum 40 cases (32.78%) were in age group of more than 50 years individuals, and minimum in age group of 11 - 20 years; 3 cases (2.45%). Further, males were predominantly contributed with 116 cases (95.08%) and remaining 6 cases (4.91%) were females. Maximum deaths were occurred during rainy season (July - September); 56 deaths (45.90%).