"About 1,000 children in Ukraine get tuberculosis a year, unfortunately 10 of them we lose from this disease," - said Deputy Chairman of the Ukrainian Association of People with Tuberculosis "Stronger than TB" Olena Fedorovska during a conference at the news agency Ukrinform.
According to her, the WHO in 2017 drew attention to childhood tuberculosis, because in countries with high levels of tuberculosis infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis occurs in childhood. These facts confirm the need to control latent tuberculosis infection, as it is children who are indicators of the spread of tuberculosis.
Today, according to Fedorovska, there are 19 schools for children with small forms of tuberculosis in Ukraine, regional children's anti-tuberculosis dispensaries, and centers for providing medical care to children with active forms of tuberculosis. But these medical institutions are shrinking, and the question arises who will accompany such children. According to Fedorovskaya, imposing such responsibilities on a family doctor is inexpedient, due to the heavy workload on primary care physicians. Therefore, it is unclear how and where such children will receive medical care.
According to the WHO, announced at a press conference by Igor Gorbasenko, Chairman of the Board of the Expert Community of Patients of Ukraine, Ukraine ranks 4th in the world in the incidence of adult tuberculosis, and fifth in the incidence of children among 53 regions controlled by the European Bureau. WHO. The average estimated WHO figure for child morbidity is 37.4 per 100,000 children, and 4.5 times higher than the official figure.
Also, according to him, the coverage of children with professional examinations for tuberculosis has decreased from 90% to 36%. NGOs have taken the initiative to create a Children's Fund to combat tuberculosis.
“We are announcing the creation of a Children's Fund to fight tuberculosis. With the reduction of anti-tuberculosis centers and medical institutions where children with tuberculosis were treated and rehabilitated, the question arises as to what happens to these children. Therefore, we believe that this issue is one of the most important and we aim to create a program of reforms to combat childhood tuberculosis in Ukraine and promote its implementation, as well as to explore the real state of tuberculosis among children and adolescents, to identify the needs of each child, "he said. Vitaliy Rudenko, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainians Against Tuberculosis NGO.
