Tuberculosis prevention programme

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium, the tubercle bacillus. The source of infection is usually the TB patient. The disease is transmitted by coughing, sneezing, expectorating (spitting up), laughing loudly and talking (the mycobacteria are expelled with droplets of mucus).
Infection by the airborne route is the most common mode of infection. One untreated mycobacterial patient can infect an average of 10 to 15 people in a year.
Tuberculosis is a social disease associated with living conditions: living (housing, nutrition), work and leisure. The cause of the development of the disease in an infected person, is the weakening of the body's defences.
Its development is influenced by, among other things, malnutrition and poor housing conditions. Other factors favouring the development of TB include HIV infection, diabetes, cancer, blood diseases, end-stage renal disease, immunosuppressive treatment e.g. in post-transplant conditions, pneumoconiosis, steroid treatment for more than 3 weeks at a dose of more than 15mg/day, rapid weight loss.

Who should benefit from the Programme?

The target group of the Programme are adults on the list of health care providers of the post-acute nurse without a previous history of tuberculosis. In particular, persons who have had direct contact with persons already diagnosed with tuberculosis or persons who are found to have at least one of the following circumstances that may contribute to the development of the disease should be tested:

- unemployment,
- disability
- burden of a long-term illness,
- burden of alcohol and/or drug addiction,
- homelessness;

The risk of disease is checked during an interview with a primary care nurse. Persons who have had contact with a TB patient, or for whom there are other indications, may present themselves to the primary care nurse without referral. In justified cases, patients are referred to a doctor, who orders a detailed