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The results of determination of drug medium depend on both individual cultural properties of the strains tested and the type of the medium used. The composition of a medium is of significance for some strains: the latter grow in any medium and are characterized by the same spectrum of resistance. However, most drug-resistant strains have higher feeding demands which are not fully met on the lyophilized Löwenstein-Jensen medium. The strains in the lyophilized medium show an incomplete spectrum of resistance and less grow than do those in freshly prepared Löwenstein-Yersen medium.

The paper summarizes the results of clinical observations of 55 teenagers suffering from active respiratory tuberculosis. It defines risk factors for this disease in adolescents. Emphasis is laid on the current pathomorphology and a great variety of clinical types of tuberculosis. Treatment of tuberculosis is ascertained to be preferred by using the short-term intensive chemotherapy regimen recommended by the World Health Organization, which is intended to cure most patients in the shortest period as compared with existing routine regimens.

To execute the tuberculosis control programme in the Ivanovo Region, the authors calculated the cost of detection of a tuberculosis case at patients' referrals to a therapeutical-and-prophylactic institution for medical aid and during prophylactic X-ray fluographic examinations and the cost of tuberculosis cure while treating the patient at a hospital in the intensive treatment phase (2-3 months) and in the outpatient setting or at a day hospital by the intermittent method in the continued treatment phase. The costs calculated were compared with those obtained by early approaches. The cost of detection of a tuberculosis case was 1580.8 for referrals in 1996 and 4000 for X-ray fluographic prophylactic examinations. The costs of hospital tuberculosis cure (85% cure rates) only in the intensive treatment phase (for 2-3 months) and outpatient intermittent treatment (for 2-4 months) with and without meals were 2415.34 and 2142.17 respectively. If the efficiency is equal, the introduction of new approaches to organizing the detection and treatment tuberculosis cases may save 3877.7 for each cured tuberculosis case and 2419.2 for each patient detected.

The problems of detection and treatment of patients with tuberculosis, which are of paramount importance for today, are presented through the analysis of the tuberculosis epidemic situation in the country and of the sociomedical characteristics of new cases (49% of socially disadapted persons). Of the most significance is the need to promptly identify patients with strains on their referral to the general somatic hospitals for complaints by using 3-multiple sputum bacterioscopy for Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the Ziehl-Neelsen method. The vital problem is also to change chemotherapeutical regimens as more severe progressive types of the disease require more active treatment in the first months after detection especially in the cohort of socially disadapted persons.

In 1993-1995, tuberculosis morbidity increased from 37.8 per 100,000 inhabitants to 55.7. The increase was due chiefly due to incidence rates among urban dwellers. In the same period, tuberculosis mortality rose from 10.2 to 55.7 per 100,000. Tuberculosis control strategy has been revised under the conditions of the increasing spread of tuberculosis infections and the Central Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences jointly with the WHO Global Programme Department has developed the programme "Detection of Patients Isolating Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the ??Tsil-Nilsen method and Their Short-Term Chemotherapy". Analyzing the preliminary data available during 2 quarters (Quarter IV, 1995, and Quarter I, 1996) indicated its adequate efficiency.

By analyzing the present-day tuberculosis epidemiological situation in the country and sociomedical characteristics of new cases, the authors present methods for detecting and treating patients, which are of paramount importance for today. Of the most significance is the need to promptly identify patients with strains on their referral to the general somatic hospitals for complaints by using 3-multiple sputum bacterioscopy for Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the Ziehl-Neelsen method. The vital problem is also to change chemotherapeutical regimens as more severe progressive types of the disease require more active treatment in the first months after detection especially in the cohort of socially disadapted persons.