Mortality from tuberculosis in Croatia

Abstract

The incidence of tuberculosis in Croatia was 40 cases per 100 000 inhibitans in the year 1997. Data on tuberculosis mortality obtained from the official publication of Central Bureau of Statistics for the year 1997 were 4/100 000 or 192 persons. Croatian National Institute for Public Health with centralized National Tuberculosis Register based on individual notification notified 41 fatalities (14 women and 27 men). In the present study 41 notifications of died tbc patients were analyzed. The majority (61%) were 60 or more years of age. The site of disease was pulmonary tbc in 35 patients (85,4%), 33 (88%) were bacteriologically confirmed and 5 (12,5%) were drug resistant. The rate of the resistant was three and the rate of the relapsed was more than five times higher in patients who died of tuberculosis than among the other active tbc patients in Croatia. It is urgently needed to implement National Tbc Program and DOTS strategy in the National Health System and reconcile the reports on tbc mortality.