[Specific features of tuberculosis in infants].

Abstract

Examining active tuberculosis in 38 infants has established the following features: the disease is characterized by predominantly (71%) classical forms of primary tuberculosis; moreover, a primary tuberculosis complex is more common (41.7%) than tuberculosis of intrathoracic lymph nodes (26.3%); by complicated tuberculosis in more than a third of the infants, by extrapulmonary tuberculosis in 23.7%, and by the affliction of 2 systems in 13.2%. Tuberculosis runs most severely in children under 1 year of age. The group at the highest risk for tuberculosis may include infants contacting patients with tuberculosis (65.8%), ill vaccinated infants with BCG (89.4%), infants with symptoms of intoxication and thoracic complaints (79.3%), and those with hyperergic and pronounced sensitivity to tuberculin.