[Epidemiological danger of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis and alcoholism refusing treatment]

The comparative evaluation of the epidemiological danger of alcohol-addicted persons with pulmonary tuberculosis who evaded treatment (the test group of 133 persons) and that of tuberculosis patients receiving adequate treatment under hospital conditions (the control group of 162 patients) was made. The morbidity level among relations having contacts with the patients evading treatment exceeded the morbidity level in the families of tuberculosis patients undergoing adequate treatment 4.5-fold for adults and 3.4-fold for children and adolescents, the contamination level in the latter group being twice as high. Although no cases of the disease were registered in the foci of infection where sick persons evading treatment had low bacterial discharge, still the elevated level of infection among children and adolescents in these foci as compared with the foci where tuberculosis patients did not evade treatment (35.0% and 21.7% respectively) indicated that the foci of infection where such aggravating factors as alcohol addiction in the source of infection was present were rightly considered to be epidemiologically most dangerous. Persons suffering with both tuberculosis and alcoholism should be subjected to compulsory hospitalization as early as possible.