On 19 March 2009, the Social Journalism Club held another meeting on the problems of TB epidemic in Ukraine. The leading Ukrainian and international experts came to speak to journalists:

-  Gundo Vailer, Head of HIV-AIDS Group, the World Health Organisation
- Svetlana Cherenko, Head of the Committee to Fight HIV-AIDS and Other Socially Dangerous Diseases, the Ministry of Public Health
- Nataliya Kozhan, Head of the Sanitary Control Agency, State Department for Execution of Punishment
- Olga Bilogortseva, Head children TB doctor,  Yanovsky Institute of Phthisiology and Pulmonology
- Olesya Vovchko, HIV-TB medical adviser, Zaporozh’ye TB Hospital
-Tatiyana Bilyk, Manager of national special projects under Stop TB program, Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation for Development of Ukraine
- Denis Denisenko, manager of the regional program Fighting TB Epidemic in Donetsk Oblast, Rinat Akhmetov’s Foundation for Development of Ukraine

The master-class covered the most vital issues: TB in Ukraine and around the globe, outlooks in the view of the global crisis, quality of medicines, TB in the penitentiary system and children TB.

Annually, 9m people on the globe become TB infected, Gundo Vailer informed. Many of them recover, however, the disease kills 1.5m people yearly.

"There is a global agreement to reduce the number of TB infected twice by 2015. Many regions in the world have a decreasing TB rate. Asia, the Central Europe and the Baltic States show positive trends. Woefully, this does not apply to Africa and the Eastern Europe, where the number of newly-diagnosed cases has grown twice since 1990", pointed Mr Vailer.

The expert also noted that the key challenge in TB treatment is its multi-drug-resistant form.

"There are 0.5m people infected with multi-drug-resistant TB around the world. They account for a high number of fatal cases. Another 40,000 TB-patients (globally) suffer from a TB form resistant to all existing TB drugs", said Mr Vailer.

When asked about the cost of treatment of multi-drug-resistant TB, Mr Vailer said that its correlation with a regular TB form was 1:13.

Ukraine would hardly reduce TB morbidity twice by 2015, though the country can boast of an improved TB situation, told Svetlana Cherenko. She believes it is due to the proper governmental policy.

"Annually, Ukraine registers 35,000 new TB cases. Totally, around 200,000 people suffer from TB at different stages. In 2008, TB morbidity was 77.8 cases per 100,000 people. These are registered cases, ie the patients, who have been diagnosed and officially registered. But still there are people, who haven't been diagnosed yet. For Ukraine such indicators make 100-105 cases per 100,000. For this purpose the government improves the quality of diagnostics, including X-ray screening. We buy X-ray facilities and equipment for laboratory TB diagnostics. Today the situation is much better. All oblasts have received equipment. However, few regions have sufficient facilities for quick diagnostics. Morbidity figures vary in Ukraine. They are higher in Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Odessa and Lugansk oblasts.

Ukraine also has a high level of multi-drug-resistant TB. The rate of newly-registered MDR cases ranges from 5% in Western oblasts to 15% in the East. It means that 15 people out of 100 TB-patients have a multi-drug resistant form, if we take the highest indicator into account. It proves inefficiency of our programs. This situation goes back to the times, when we had irregular deliveries of TB drugs. Since 2002 Ukraine has been fully provided with the first-line drugs and the treatment is absolutely free.

Nataliya Kozhan told the delegates of the master-class about TB morbidity in penitentiary system.

"TB morbidity in prisons is always higher than in the civil sectors", said the expert. First, it is related to stress, which affects the immunity, while the second reason is living in a close contact. TB morbidity started growing in 1994 and peaked in 2000, when 8,600 people with TB were registered. However, the Department has achieved significant results, as over eight years, TB morbidity dropped eightfold. Last year, the prisons showed 1,062 cases of TB.

The Prison Department is a co-runner of the National program and also runs a departmental program.  With the lack of state funding, we sought to raise additional finance. We closely cooperated with versatile international funds, and primarily with the World Bank, which over the last four years allocated big amounts on prisons to fight TB and AIDS".

Olga Bilogortseva: "Children TB is an integral part of TB problem.  Children account for 11% of the global 9m TB patients. In Ukraine, the percentage of children among TB patients is 1.7, which is much lower compared to other TB affected countries. Ukraine runs the system of timely diagnostics and prevention. It includes mass tuberculin diagnostics. It allows to reveal latent TB in 200,000 children annually.

In the recent years, TB has been killing 6-9 children yearly. Normally, these are the children, who haven't received BCG vaccination after birth. They suffer from grave TB forms. Children are most vulnerable to TB. Adults infected with TB micobacteria have a lifelong TB development risk of 5-10%. . Children aged under 1 year have the risk of over 40%, those aged 1-4 – of 23%. A child might catch TB from the first days of his life, if contacted a person exerting bacteria. The latent period is 6-8 weeks, from the moment the child was infected and until the clinical symptoms appear".

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