EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS IN UKRAINE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Abstract. The tendencies of the epidemiological situation on tuberculosis in Ukraine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 according to the official statistics in 2015–2020, the survey of 157 expert doctors and the telephone survey of 69 residents of Volyn region are analyzed. It is established that the disease of COVID-19 has found its imprint on the epidemiological situation of tuberculosis and on the functioning of the anti-tuberculosis service. Against the background of declining incidence of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis, co-infection: TB / AIDS in each year the rate of decline was much more intense than in previous years. However, the incidence of tuberculosis among contacts with bacterial excreta in tuberculosis foci increased 1.85 times in each year. The frequency of tuberculosis recurrences is steadily decreasing. The prevalence and mortality from all forms of active tuberculosis among the entire population of Ukraine has a tendency similar to a decrease in morbidity. The effectiveness of treatment of patients of all categories is proportional to the severity of the tuberculosis process, but still insufficient. Mortality in anti-tuberculosis institutions increased in the previous year against the decrease of this indicator in previous years. Against the background of the inaccessibility of the population to TB care, day hospitals are underused, and the sanatorium network needs to be reorganized. The surgical method of treatment of patients is extremely insufficiently realized. The dispensary contingent of anti-tuberculosis institutions is decreasing every year. There is a reduction in the infrastructure of the anti-tuberculosis service, and in each year the largest reduction was in the bed stock of anti-tuberculosis institutions and sanatoriums, as well as a decrease in the number of TB doctors.