Eligilibility criteria for video-observed anti-tuberculosis treatment at patients from Chisinau city

Abstract

Background: It is known that the main barriers in the anti-tuberculosis treatment delivery are social, economic, educational and psychological issues. According to the estimations the Republic of Moldova (RM) remains a high risk zone showing an inadequate concern regarding social determinants that represent the risk factors for achieving high treatment outcome. Tuberculosis is concentrated in areas with high density of the population, poor environmental and sanitation conditions: poverty, food insecurity, low living conditions. Material and methods: A retrospective selective, descriptive study of socioeconomic, epidemiological peculiarities, case-management, diagnosis and microbiological characteristics of 693 patients with tuberculosis registered in Chisinau in 2016 was performed. Results: Despite the fact that criteria for selection of patients for video-assisted anti-tuberculosis treatment (VOT) were defined, a range of risk factors can endanger treatment performing, such as: deep social economic vulnerability, comorbidities associated or not with psychic impairment, disease related characteristics, such as extensiveness, severity, duration of the tuberculosis evolution, positive microbiological state and multi-drug resistance are conditions which can exclude the ambulatory treatment and VOT. The low treatment outcome shows the limited potential of VOT to improve the epidemiological indices due to the complexity of patient’s risk factors. Conclusions: VOT can be implemented in the management of tuberculosis patients in the actual epidemiological state of the RM, if a complex of patients supporting measures are performed.