[Legal aspects of compulsory hospitalization of incompliant patients with tuberculosis]

The main task of an antituberculosis service is to treat patients with tuberculosis and to follow up needy persons in order to prevent the spread of tuberculosis among the population. However, phthisiatricians are unable to solve some problems without assistance from the government as they are associated with social and behavioral causes--no or partial patient's motivation for treatment. Early therapy discontinuation in patients with tuberculosis, latent or obvious interruption of chemotherapy, patients' use of a partial dose of drugs give the vast majority of Russian phthisiatricians concern. These lower the efficiency of treatment, increase the likelihood of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and contribute to the chronic pattern of the tuberculosis process, continuously replenishing the pool of untreatable patients with tuberculosis and bacterial discharge. An incompliant tuberculosis patient discharging bacteria may be compulsorily taken to a tuberculosis hospital by the court decision. This is in line with Article 10, the 18 June, 2001 Federal Law No. 77--"On Prevention of Tuberculosis Spread in the Russian Federation". This investigation was undertaken to enhance the effectiveness of involvement of incompliant bacteria-discharging patients with tuberculosis to compulsory examination and treatment. The mechanism of realization of Article 10 of the abovementioned Law was analyzed from the experience of an antituberculosis service of the Ryazan Region (178 writs). At present, it is impossible to fulfill this Article 10 in corpore due to there is an improper legal base that is in no subordinate legislation and actuate sentences for non-implementation of court decisions. Subordinate legislation regulating a compulsory hospitalization procedure by officers of justice should be elaborated. It is necessary to introduce amendments into the base to make patients with infectious tuberculosis who have not carried a court decision on compulsory hospitalization. Tuberculosis facilities should be used to set up social centers for the complex work and treatment of socially dysadapted patients with tuberculosis (including those who have been released from confinement institutions). For this, tuberculosis institutions should be staffed by social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, and narcology experts with the appropriate funds being allocated.