Paediatric Pulmonology and Allergology

2003 October, Vol. VI, No. 2 (pp.2297-2302)

Tuberculosis in children in Lithuania 1992-2002

Elena Suciliene, Dalija Salomeja Gaidamoniene, Ona Palmyra Butkiene, Eugenija Aleksaite, Arunas Valiulis

Child­ho­od TB is im­por­tant not on­ly as a per­son’s pro­blem but it is the mir­ror of TB si­tu­a­tion in the coun­try as it re­flects the re­cent tran­smis­sion, be­si­des it is im­por­tant for fu­tu­re as re­ser­voir for in­fec­tio­us TB.

The diag­no­sis of tu­ber­cu­lo­sis in chil­dren is dif­fi­cult be­cau­se the sen­si­ti­vi­ty of spe­ci­fic tests is low. TB of­ten is diag­no­sing by a po­si­ti­ve tu­ber­cu­lin skin test, his­to­ry of ex­po­su­re to TB pa­tient and ab­nor­mal chest ra­dio­graph and cli­ni­cal signs. Child­ho­od TB in Lit­hu­a­nia inc­re­a­sed in 1994 and re­mains high till 2002, oc­cu­ring 4,1–5,9 proc. of all TB ca­ses. The scho­ol age chil­dren suf­fe­red from TB fre­qu­ent­ly, the main lo­ca­li­sa­tion was the sys­tem of pul­mo­na­ry or­gans. 63 proc. of all pe­diat­ric TB ca­ses we­re de­tec­ted by pro­phy­lac­tic in­ves­ti­ga­tions, so it is ne­ces­sa­ry to point out to the groups of risk for TB.

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