EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HUMAN TUBERCULOSIS IN THE DECADE OF THE TURN OF THE MILLENIUM

Similar to several countries in the world, the incidence of tuberculos is has been changed also in Hungary from the beginning of the 90s (Tab les 2 and 3, Figures 2 and 3). While the incidence of the disease decr eased by 4 to 5% during the 80s (Table 1), 17% increase was observed b etween 1991 and 1994. In 1994, 4163 new tuberculotic patients were reg istered in Hungary, that corresponded to 40.5%(000) (Table 4). 46% of the patients proved to be infectious, i. e. Koch bacterium was isolate d from their sputum. In 94% of the new diseases pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed, while 50% of the extrapulmonary diseases forms affecte d the urogenital system. Considering the age distribution, dominance o f the 30 to 60 years old patients was observed. Majority of the patien ts live in Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Hajdu-Bihar, Pest counties and in the capital, Budapest. In a year 160 to 180 patie nts die due to tuberculosis (Figures 4 to 8). In Hungary, first of all the responsibility of the social situation has to be outlined, number of homeless and alcohol addict people has been increasing and the inc idence of tuberculosis is higher among them. AIDS does not play any ro le in the epidemiology of tuberculosis, however foreigners staying and working illegal in Hungary are potentially dangerous because they can not be reached by the human health service. The Phthisiologist Expert Collegium elaborated a new ''National Tuberculosis Program'' in 1994 that was aimed to introduce the recent results of the detection of inf ected people, diagnosis and therapy.