DETECTION OF TUBERCULOSIS AND TACTICS FOR FOLLOWING UP TUBERCULOSIS RISK GROUP SUBJECTS, BY USING DIASKINTEST<sup>®</sup> (RECOMBINANT TUBERCULOSIS ANTIGEN)
The safety, specificity, and sensitivity of the new skin test Diaskintest were studied. The continuous one-stage selection method used to form a group of 428 patients with local forms of tuberculosis (of them there were 328 children and adolescents, 100 adults aged 18 to 45 years) and 1250 children and adolescents from a tuberculosis risk group. The agent has been found to be safe and to cause no unusual reactions in children, adolescents, and adults. It has a high sensitivity since it produces a positive result in virtually all patients with tuberculosis, and during an active tuberculous process, the positive results of the positive diaskintest are higher than those of the tuberculin skin test, which allows the diaskintest to be used for the determination of the activity of the process. The inclusion of the new procedure for the early detection of latent tuberculous infection into the risk groups could substantially reduce the number of children and adolescents in whom preventive treatment was indicated. The study of the test for the differential diagnosis of postvaccinal and infectious allergy showed a three-fold decrease in the number of patients needing to be followed by a phthisiatrician. Based on the findings, the authors propose an algorithm for the examination and follow-up of patients in the general medical network and tuberculosis service facilities.