Comparative analysis of tuberculosis morbidity in children and adolescents from Moscow and the Penza Region

: Tuberculosis morbidity was comparatively analyzed in the children and adolescents of Moscow and the Penza Region. The epidemiology of tuberculosis in the children and adolescents was established to be universal in the compared regions in the study period. This manifested itself as a stable tendency for higher morbidity rates (MR), increased incidence of destructive tuberculosis, inadequate use of the existing methods for active detection of tuberculosis in these age groups, and, among those who had fallen ill with this disease, an increase in the number of persons from the foci of tuberculous infection and persons with established contact with patients with tuberculosis. Along with a steady MR growth for tuberculosis among the children and adolescents, there has been a quantitative modification to the proportion of all epidemiologically hazardous forms of tuberculosis, such as the bacillary and destructive forms of pulmonary tuberculosis complicated by extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Hypodiagnosis of tuberculous pleurisy and extrapulmonary tuberculosis has been recently noted in the general health care network. The analysis also leads to the conclusion that the quality of mass tuberculin diagnosis remains poor. In both regions, general pediatricians are not adequately alert to tuberculosis, extrapulmonary tuberculosis in particular. With a rise in tuberculosis endemic, the incidence of tuberculosis in 18-21-year-old persons is 2-3 times greater than that in adolescents, which is associated with the greater activity of this population group and with the underdetection of the asymptomatic forms of tuberculosis in adolescents.