Familial tuberculosis and its prevention in terms of health care restructuring

Abstract

Aim: To study the peculiarities of the course of familial tuberculosis, which includes tuberculosis revealed in someone in the family if there is a source of this infection. M aterials and methods: We studied 199 families. One member of each family contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and later became a source of the disease for contactees. The examination was performed with standard clinical techniques using radiological, bacteriological, and immunological examination techniques. Results: We found that in 12-24 months, 207 people were diseased in these families. We also revealed the shift toward a younger age among the diseased contactees. Special emphasis should be paid to the disease of children under 18–52 people, while there was only one patient among the sources of tuberculosis. There were more cases of familial tuberculosis in urban than in rural areas. Females were more likely to suffer from these forms of tuberculosis. Conclusions: Considering the above, we believe that the development of familial tuberculosis occurs due to closer contact of TB source patients with family members, which is facilitated by bad habits of source patients and lack of isolation of contactees from sources and ill-considered reform of health care in general and tuberculosis particularly.