[Tuberculosis of the central nervous system in preschool children]

The clinical and X-ray forms of tuberculosis were studied in 1481 patients aged under 7 years who had been treated from 1970 to 2000. Patients with tuberculosis of the central nervous system accounted for 5.5%. In the past 15 years, there was an increase in the share of generalized tuberculosis, more severity of the clinical course of tuberculous meningitis, and a rise in the incidence of deaths from the disease. Children of the first year of life fell ill more frequently. The main causes should be considered to be exogenous superinfection whose role increases under the conditions of an undetected reservoir of tuberculous infection; no biomedical protection as tuberculosis controlling measures; no protection of children from socially disadapted families. A fatal case was recorded in half the patients. The other half was discharged as having rough residual changes in the central nervous system.