[The epidemiological profile and current evolutionary trends in tuberculosis in adolescents (15-19 years old) in the...

In Bucharest, the increasing TB incidence in the age group of 15 to 19 years till 100.11/100000 in 1996 has to become a concerning matter. The study of 585 cases aged 15 to 19 registered in Bucharest between 1991 and 1995 (more than 2/3 of all the cases in that period) revealed the important proportion of secondary TB (67.4%), as well as the frequency of pleural involvement (25.6%). The main discovering methods remain the examination of symptomatic cases (78.6%) and epidemiological inquiry (10%). The fact that 85% of the bacteriological confirmed cases had positive sputum specimens in microscopy confirms the idea of discovering the patients in advanced stages of disease, as well as epidemiological signification. Almost 50% of the ill teen-agers belong to families with low living status. At this age group we found an important degree of recovery after chemotherapy (82% rate of healing in the first year).