5. What are the Key Factors for Progression to Active Disease?
- Age: children <5 years of age and the elderly are less infectious as they have paucibacillary disease
- HIV: people who are HIV positive and have a high CD4 count would be as infectious as HIV negative patients. Those with low CD4 count are considered less infectious as they would have paucibacillary disease.
- silicosis,
- diabetes mellitus,
- malnutrition,
- corticosteroids and other immuno-suppressive drugs and
- smoking