Tuberculosis in Russia in Historical Aspect

INTRODUCTION. Tuberculosis (TB) is one of major socially significant infectious disease, which continues to be relevant up to date both in Russia and around the world.

OBJECTIVE. Carry out scientific and historical analysis of epidemiological trends and fight against TB in Russia since the beginning of the XX until the present day.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. The search databases Medline, eLibrary, PubMed, https://link.springer.com, ConsultantPlus were used with the keywords-queries: tuberculosis, history, World War I, World War II, perestroika. 6 out of 41 publications, offered on search sites, were chosen, 25 – from 117 archive materials, a total of 158 sources were viewed. The analysis covered 121-year period from 1902 to 2023, with the historical periodization of epidemiological trends in TB prevalence in Russia.

RESULTS. For more than a century Russia has made considerable progress in the fight against TB: its incidence and mortality from 733,0 and 276,8 per 100,000 population in 1913 had decreased up to 29,6 and 3,5 detected cases by 2023 respectively. In 2021 WHO removed Russia from the list of countries with a high global burden of TB. Nevertheless, there is still a very high prevalence of tuberculosis with multi-drug resistance (MDR-TB) and a combination of TB and human immunodeficiency virus (TB/HIV), which proportion among newly diagnosed pulmonary TB in 2023 was 32,8 % and 24,7 % respectively. There is still another problem of high uneven TB spread in various regions of Russia, despite the unity of principles and approaches to its eradication as an epidemic. The lowest incidence of TB in 2023 was recorded in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug – 7,2 cases per 100,000 population, the highest incidence is in the Republic of Tuva and Chukotka Autonomous Okrug – 158,6 and 112,2 cases respectively, with the national average 29,6.

DISCUSSION. Unlike other authors’ publications on the epidemiology of TB in historical aspect, the study has a rigorous periodization of the epidemic process in close connection with historical events, happening in Russia and the world, covering more than a century-long period. Another characteristic of the study is providing annual figures on TB for 1902–1903 and 1955–2023, where historical information is derived from original archival reporting documents of the pre-revolutionary period and the period of Soviet power.

CONCLUSION. Russia, having undergone tremendous social and economic upheavals with excessively high rates on TB at the beginning of the last century, has managed to overcome mass disease spread to date. Nowadays, it is necessary to stop a rise in the incidence of MDR-TB and combined TB/HIV. Scrupulous study of risk factors for TB in regions with high rates is also essential, with subsequent development and implementation of differentiated regional anti-tuberculosis target programs.

marine medicine, tuberculosis, morbidity, mortality, historical aspect, Russia

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