[Tuberculosis in older children and adolescents in an industrial region]

60 children and adolescents with tuberculosis aged 12-17 years were examined to specify typical features of the infection in present-day social and economic situation and approaches to its early prehospital diagnosis. The majority of the patients were girls infected with M. tuberculosis 2-3 years before the examination, exposed to a single BCG vaccination with one postvaccination mark. Half of the patients were identified by the symptoms, one third by fluorography, the rest by tuberculin diagnosis or contact. A complex of measures is proposed to improve prehospital diagnosis in children and adolescents.