RISK FACTORS FOR TUBERCULOSIS IN CHILDREN IN THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF CONTACT WITH A TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT

Abstract

The specific features of the influence of biomedical, epidemic, and social risk factors for tuberculosis were studied in children in relation to the presence or absence of contact with a tuberculosis patient. In children in contact, the determinants of tuberculosis are its severity depending on the number of infection sources, the presence of bacterial excretion, including in those with drug resistance and a death focus; the absence of antiepidemic measures in an infection focus, including that of cycles of tuberculosis contact preventive therapy. The main conditions for the epidemic risk factor of the disease in persons in contact are the social problems in their family: its low health awareness; non-compliance with the sanitary epidemic regimen in the family of an infection source. In children without established contact, the major risk factors of tuberculosis are social problems that do not appear to a first-line marker for an infection source: the children living in immigrant, large, or asocial families who show low health awareness; as well as poor living conditions. Organizational measures are proposed for the prevention of tuberculosis in children and its early detection.