Tuberculosis
Yearly March 24 under the initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) is marked as a Day of tuberculosis prevention: on this day in 1882 the German biologist Robert Koch had discovered the pathogenic agents of tuberculosis that are also being called bacillus Kochii. In 1993 году WHO has announced tuberculosis a global thread and established the day of the disease prevention that would increase the level of knowledge about the disease and affords to prevent the epidemics.
WHO give the number of 9 million people suffering from tuberculosis worldwide. As far as Ukraine is concerned, the epidemics of the disease has been announces in 1995 and until now it has not been overgone. Ukraine remains in the list of the countries with a high level of the tuberculosis. In 2014 there were TB-patients on 100 000 people. In 2015 it is being prognosed to have 130 persons on 100 000. Odessa region is on the first place in Ukraine for the illness frequency, but the well coordinated work of the government structures, medical establishments and NGOs, are doing everything to decrease the level of frequency of the tuberculosis.
The Fund “Way Home” started its work for the detection of the illness among the risk group members in 2013. It is one of the main directions of the work of the Fund. As the Department of the HIV/AIDS prevention states – it is often very important to check the drug users for the tuberculosis, but the only way to make the check was to direct the client to the free medical check in the hospital.
In 2013 the Foundation “The Way Home” had started the preliminary activity to detect and treat tuberculosis among the injection drug users. Stepan Koisa, the head of the project “HIV and tuberculosis”said that at that time 48 people among the group found to have tuberculosis; all of them were forwarded to the hospital boarding treatment.
In 2015 “The Way Home” together with the ICF “Society Health Alliance” launched the project “The early diagnostics of tuberculosis among the risk-groups”. The risk groups this time were considered to be not only injected-drugs users, but also adult homeless, как взрослые бездомные and ex-prisoners.
Stepan Koisa is speaking on the functioning of the project:”Our social workers go to the locations of the risk groups, i.e. the train stations, markets, places of the social programs goods distribution. The clients are given questionnaire on his health. If the person answers yes on 3 of 8 questions – he is being forwarded to the medical diagnostics and the tests. If the client is TB positive, we forward him to the hospital. It usually happens, that we cannot finish our work just with forwarding him to the hospital (because the clients of the risk groups usually do not go there) – we have to bring the client to the hospital ourselves. Then our work can be called complete”. In the second half of the year 2015 we have found the following number of the infected: 5 gypsies (among 151 persons), 29 homeless adults (out of 679), 13 ex-prisoners (out of 297) – i.e. we have hospitalized a total number of 47 persons, which is 10 people more than in the first half of 2015”.
The project “The early diagnostics of tuberculosis among the risk-groups” will go on until the summer of 2017. Our specialists are looking forward to see the profound decrease of the TB rate among the risk groups.
Аurther detailed information on the project please call: +038 (048) 717-31-38, (095) 204-42-11, (063) 938-52-62 (Stepan Kaisa, the coordinator).
