The Problem of Tuberculosis Relapses in the Current Epidemiological Situation

The objective: to study tuberculosis relapses in Kaluga Region. Subjects and Methods. A retrospective study of all reported tuberculosis cases in Kaluga Region in 2019-2023 ( n =996) was conducted. It included 817 new tuberculosis cases (New TB Cases Group) and 179 tuberculosis relapses (TB Relapses Group). Results. Tuberculosis relapses were significantly more often detected among patients with disabilities due to other diseases ( p <0.05), 52.3% of tuberculosis relapses were the cases reported 10 years or more after the cure of tuberculosis. Relapses versus new cases of tuberculosis more often had a positive result of sputum tests, (68.4% versus 58.6%, p =0.017), multiple and extensive drug resistance (46.9% and 3.4% versus 16.4% and 0.9%, p <0.05), and lung tissue decay (61.6% versus 46.95%, p <0.001). In the group of tuberculosis relapses, lethal outcomes from tuberculosis were more frequently reported (6.7% versus 2.8%; p =0.010), while in the group of new cases, postmortem diagnosis of tuberculosis was more frequent (6.0% versus 1.1%, p =0.007), which indicated untimely diagnosis of the disease.