Selected results of the tuberculosis control program in the Czech Republic

There are probably several causes why steady decrease of tuberculosis incidence stopped. The aim of our work was to investigate a possible relation of tuberculosis incidence in smaller administrative areas with several social and economic characteristics. The individual data were taken from the Information System of Bacillary Tuberculosis, based on laboratory reporting network. Tuberculosis incidence dropped to 19.8/100,000 in 1987 and since then it fluctuates around that level. The levels in districts ranged from 1.9 to 45.6 in 1997. The social status, overcrowding, air pollution and unemployment rates are weakly correlated with tuberculosis incidence. These unfavourable values of social, economical and ecological indicators are linked with more industrialised parts of the country. Age and gender analysis shows that male population aged from 40-60 is the most affected population with higher rates of smear positive pulmonary TB. These rates are positively linked with a size of the municipality, in larger towns higher number of those cases are detected. Contrary to that, relatively higher rates of pulmonary tuberculosis are in elderly women in smaller municipalities. There is a suspicion about important role of relative poverty in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the Czech Republic. The results indicate that we should concentrate our effort to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis mainly in economically active male population.