March 27, 2000, Monday
HEADLINE: Over 120,000 new cases of tuberculosis registered in Russia in 1999
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) With 123,403 new cases of tuberculosis registered in 1999,
Russia now occupies the 11th place among countries hardest hit by the disease, the Russian
Health Ministry announced at a Monday news conference.
A steady increase in the number of tubercular patients has been recorded since 1991,
the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. By the end of 1998,
there were 76 tubercular patients per 100,000 people in Russia.
At the same time, Russian and WHO experts point out that the increase in the number of
tubercular patients and the corresponding death rate is not just Russia's problem. As
early as in 1993, WHO declared tuberculosis a universally dangerous disease. According to
WHO, the death rate from tuberculosis is higher than that of any other disease.
The worst situation in Russia is witnessed in penitentiaries, where the number of
tubercular cases is 60 times higher than Russia's average. After the forthcoming amnesty,
Russian penitentiaries will release some 4,000 tubercular patients, the Health Ministry
and the Ministry of Justice have said. About half of them can pass on pathogenic organisms
resistant to treatment.
In an effort to intensify the fight against tuberculosis in Russia, a comprehensive
federal program on urgent measures to prevent tuberculosis in Russia from 1995-2004 was
adopted in 1998. The program is aimed at stabilizing the epidemic tuberculosis situation
in the country and reducing the disease rate to 50 cases per 100,000 people (the epidemic
threshold) and a cutting the death rate from tuberculosis to 12 cases per 100,000 people.
In 1999, the Russian government allocated about$ 60 million for anti-tuberculosis
measures. [RU EUROPE ASIA EEU EMRG HEA]