The A-P correspondent was informed at Republican center for control of tuberculosis that at the moment, more than eight thousand people are registered with the disease, and up to 1,500 people get the disease every year. Yet, these are only official data. So, according to experts, almost half of the population of the Republic might get the disease by 2000. The Koch bacillus is anaerobic, i.e. it can live in any environment. Any person with weakened immunity system can fall victim to the disease.
Tuberculosis spreads through aerial way and through direct contact.
The potential risk group includes tobacco smokers, people with chronic bronchitis and pneumonia, and homeless people. The frightening prognosis might not come true if emergency measures are taken for timely detection of bacillus-carriers. The most effective method is tuberculinodiagnosing - the Mantu test. But in the last several years, due to shortage of tuberculin, the rate of detection of the ill had abruptly fallen. In the same year, the illness claimed lives of 24.