PREVALENCE OF LATENT TUBERCULOSIS INFECTION AMONG MEDICAL WORKERS

Abstract

The analysis of the results of immunological tests (skin test with tuberculosis recombinant allergen in standard dilution, hereinafter referred to as the test with ATP) and laboratory immunological test IGRA, delivered in 2019-2022 to employees of medical organizations of the Moscow Department of Health, working in four administrative districts of Moscow (Central, Western, South-Western, Troitsk and Novomoskovsk, next – CAD, WAD, SWAD/T&NAD). Among the average annual number of employees over 5 years – 43,452 people, with medical examination and exclusion of tuberculosis, the prevalence of persons with latent tuberculosis infection (LTI) was 2.6, 6.1 and 1.8%, in the CAD, WAD and SWAD/T&NAD, respectively, or 3.4% in general to these districts. At the same time, the average annual frequency of detection of cases of LTI («first detected LTI») was 0.6, 1.3 and 0.6% in these districts, respectively, and 0.75% in all districts as a whole. 95.4% of the employees were assigned a course of preventive therapy (PT), 45.8% of which the course was started. Among the latter, 85.0% successfully completed the course, 14.1% – the course was interrupted by the patient, and 0.9% – canceled by the doctor due to adverse events. The main PT regimen used (78.4%) included 3 months of taking a combination of isoniazid and pyrazinamide (INN: isoniazid 150 mg + pyrazinamide 500 mg), which showed a low proportion of adverse events – 3.1%. The identification of workers of medical organizations of LTI allows to determine a group high risk for tuberculosis and to allocate a group of persons for preventive therapy