Pregnancy and delivery as risk factors for tuberculosis

: A total of 1,474 females who fell ill with tuberculosis in the reproductive age in 1988-1992 (12% of them fell ill during pregnancy and after labour) and 690 pregnants were examined. The tuberculosis detection rates in pregnants and parturients in Moscow were 1.5-2 times higher than the average rates in the above period. The women who fell ill during pregnancy and just after labour frequently developed acute, frequently complicated forms of the process, which were close to the primary forms in their genesis. Contact film thermoindication is an effective method of detecting respiratory diseases in pregnant females (3/4 of clinical and thermoscopic coincidences). A risk group for tuberculosis was identified among the pregnants, which was 6.5% of the examinees: those who had been registered at the tuberculosis dispensary or had contacts with patients; those who suffered from chronic non-specific respiratory diseases or had steady-state thermal asymmetry.