[Aspects of TB endemia in Romania and the response of the National Programme for Prevention, Surveillance and Control of Tuberculosis]

Abstract

In Romania, tuberculosis is a major public health problem. Consistent with the remarkable improvement of success rate in bacteriological confirmed cases from 51% in 1995 to 85.8% in 2011, the global incidence of the disease fell from a maximum of 142.2 per hundred thousand in 2002 to 73.3 per hundred thousand in 2013. The endemia attenuation (so far from historically low in 1985) is highlighted also by the incidence in children and mortality rates. In MDR/XDR TB disease, the situation is significantly different. Although, the endemia intensity is low (500 incident cases and 1,500 prevalent cases) the therapeutic impact is minimum, as demonstrated by the analysis of outcomes. The success rate in the range of 20% is unacceptable in a context of significant issues of legislation and procedures deficiency, with an insufficient funding in which a far too large role returns to external programs, unpredictable and limited as objectives and duration.