[Causes of death of patients with tuberculosis in the first year after its detection]

During a 5-year period (from 1983 to 1987) 81 patients died within the first year after detection of tuberculosis. Among them, 42 patients died of advanced tuberculosis because of their late hospitalization. In 13 of them, the death causes were due to diagnostic mistakes. Twenty five patients died of concomitant chronic diseases. Eight patients died of malignant, fulminating and/or therapy-resistant tuberculosis. Four patients died because there were mistakes in their treatment. Two patients died after operations for pulmonary tuberculosis. The real possibility for decreasing the tuberculosis death rate lies in higher diagnostic skill of general physicians in regard to phthisiology at the prehospital stage and that of phthisiologists at the hospital stage with respect to emergency and gerontological cases and selection of patients for surgical treatment.