Tuberculosis is treated. Moreover, in  Armenia the treatment is free of charge . The main thing is to see the doctor in time and not practice self-treatment. This is what the Director of the National Center for Tuberculosis Control under the Ministry of Health of Armenia Armen Hayrapetyan told the correspondent of  NEWS.am Medicine. As for how much are the TB patients dangerous too thers, then, according to the expert, a short-term contact with the patient, for example, in transport, is nothing particularly fraught with.

According to him, the national program to combat tuberculosis was approved by the Government in 2006 and has nine strategies covering various sectors and segments of the population, like army, health and criminal organizations. The programs up ports not only the treatment of TB, but also its prevention and the control over the patients. Ministry of Health allocated for this about 4 million U.S. dollars per year. Major donor to the National TB Control Program is the Global Fund. The treatment of one patient, lasting up to two years, costs about 10 thousand dollars.

According to Armen Hayrapetyan, the situation is improving each year starting from 2006. In 2012, the incidence rate per 100 thousand people was 37 (before, in 2005 it was 62, 4).That is, the number of new cases in 2012 was 1125. About 30 percent of new cases are contagious.

There were 60 cases of deaths. (By the way, 16-20% of TB cases and deaths occur in our migrants returning from Russia, Ukraine with already a severe form of tuberculosis).

Armen Hayrapetyan said that compared with the CIS countries, Eastern European countries of our region, the situation in Armenia is encouraging. The relatively high incidence of tuberculosis is in Kotayk Marz, Shirak and Armavir.In Vayots Dzor, Aragatsotn, Gegharkunikthe situation is safe.The source of infection is an infectious tuberculosis patient. Infecting others depends on the concentration of assignable microbes and duration of communication with the TB patient. «TB agents are present in the air, too, but, nevertheless, they do not infect every one. We are getting infected but not sick, because the protective properties of the body resist the development of disease. First of all, these microbes affect people with weak immune systems"- explains Hayrapetyan.

Thus, short-term appearance near a tubercular person, for example, in the same transport, does not mean that you can get TB.

Yana Avchiyan