[Detection of tuberculosis in the countries of Central Asia by the electronic monitoring system data]

The basic stages of putting into practice of tuberculosis monitoring systems in the Central Asian Region (CAC) (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyz, and Tajikistan) with the assistance of the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Central Asian Region Programs (CDC/CAR), and the USA Agency for International Development in 2000-2006 are considered. These stages comprised: 1) modification of accounting and reporting forms in accordance with the requirements of the uniform statistical tuberculosis registration system; 2) development, adaptation, and introduction of an electronic tuberculosis monitoring and management system (ETMMS) in the regions and countries of Central Asia; 3) epidemiological analysis of information of tuberculosis monitoring systems, by using the elements of evidence-based medicine. At present, policy electronic tuberculosis monitoring systems entirely cover the areas of three countries of the region. The quality of entries and their processing and analysis is assured by a wide training system set up by the CDC/CAR jointly with the leading national tuberculosis facilities of CAR with the support of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Control. The information obtained by ETMMS has permitted a detail comparative analysis of the structure of tuberculosis at the level of individual regions to identify characteristic groups of areas in the demographic and sociooccupational characteristics of new tuberculosis cases.