TO THE QUESTION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SANITARY AND EDUCATIONAL WORK IN SOCIAL GROUPS
In recent years, in many countries of the world there has been a trend towards an increase in the prevalence of socially significant diseases, including tuberculosis. To prevent the development of severe complications, it is important to conduct sanitary and educational work among the population and the active work of medical workers to identify early forms of the disease. At the same time, it is very important to evaluate their effectiveness when carrying out preventive measures. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of strengthening the activity of sanitary and educational work among the population and medical workers on the dynamics of the prevalence of tuberculosis. Material and methods. After conducting sanitary and educational work for 2 years, 499,3 thousand people were examined for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The social groups of the surveyed were represented by: housewives, pensioners, migrants and people who returned from places of detention. Results. After 1 and 2 years from the start of the study, the overall incidence increased by 1,7 and 1,6 times compared with the previous year and amounted to 52,0 cases per 100 thousand of the population. This was due to the active detection of early forms of tuberculosis in the examined patients, who accounted for 29-33 % of the total number of patients. Three years after the implementation of the complex of sanitary and educational work, the incidence of tuberculosis decreased by more than 1,5 times and amounted to 29,5 cases per 100 thousand of the population. Conclusion. Active sanitary and educational work with the population, the motivation of doctors to search for early forms of the disease and targeted examinations of certain social groups of people contribute to improving the epidemiological situation in terms of the prevalence of the disease and reducing the number of patients with open forms of tuberculosis.