Биопрепараты: Профилактика, диагностика, лечение (Feb 2018)
Current tuberculosis incidence among children; medicines for prevention and diagnosis of TB
Abstract
The article analyses main epidemiological parameters of tuberculosis (TB) in children and adolescents in Russia. It was demonstrated that the incidence rate in this population, though decreasing, is still high. The disease incidence in children and adolescents arising from contacts with people with active TB is 30 and 25 times higher than the overall incidence rate in children and adolescents in Russia, respectively. Analysis of TB lesions in a major proportion of children and adolescents shows multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacteria tuberculosis (MTB), and this calls for revision of approaches to preventive actions for this population. The tuberculine Mantoux test is of limited value when it comes to diagnosing TB in adolescents. Screening in adolescents and children older than 7 years is performed using Diaskintest® containing two MBT-specific antigens. Specific TB prevention for newborns is performed by vaccination with BCG and BCG-M living vaccines. The product was modified by a 30 % reduction of the number of BCG living cells per 1 mg of vaccine in order to reduce postvaccinal complications largely associated with residual virulence of the BCG substrain. Since 2012 BCG vaccine lots have been standardized to contain from 500 thousand to 1 million viable BCG cells per BCG vaccine dose and from 375 thousand to 575 thousand viable BCG cells per BCG-M vaccine dose.
