Tuberculosis morbidity in Transnistria is decreasing

The number of people suffering from tuberculosis in the Transnistrian region has fallen twofold, doctor Petr Dermenji, of the regional tuberculosis hospital, announced recently. The World Health Organization has implemented a special program against TB in the region during five years, Info-Prim Neo’s correspondent in Transnistria reports. “The situation has stabilized in the past three years. The number of TB cases among children, adolescents and grownups is decreasing,” Dermenji said. According to the cited source, a specialized ward for seriously sick people was opened at the tuberculosis hospital in 2007. Thirty persons are now treated in the ward. The treatment costs 150,000 dollars but the sick people receive it free of charge. The equipment and preparations come from donations. In 2006, Transnistria witnessed a so-called “double epidemic”. There was one carrier of Koch's bacillus for 1,372 residents on average. One carrier can infect 15 healthy persons during a year. A state of epidemic is declared if the number of sick people exceeds 50 cases per 100,000 people (1 carrier per 2,000 healthy persons). This figure in the Transnistrian region rose two times in 2006. There were reported 3,713 cases of tuberculosis. Most of the sick people were from Tighina, Rabnita, Slobozia and Dubasari, Petr Dermenji said. A section in Dubasari town also treats people suffering from TB that come from Rabnita, Camenca, Grigoriopol. There are cases when the people sick with tuberculosis are also HIV carriers. Many of the people suffering from TB do not want to receive treatment and run away from hospital, especially those that are not from towns. Therefore, the disease is spreading. The doctors say that a law that will oblige these persons to follow treatment should be adopted as soon as possible because more and more persons that do not form part of the risk group get infected. Valery Pyshnograev, chief doctor at the Dubasari Center of Epidemiology and Hygiene, considers that the treatment is more efficient if it is administered not very far from home.