At the next meeting of the executive committee of the Lutsk City Council, an important medical and social issue was considered – the state of tuberculosis incidence and the progress of implementation of the National Program for Combating Tuberculosis for 2002–2005. The main speaker was Fedir Koshel, head of the health care department of the Lutsk city executive committee. He informed about the dynamics of tuberculosis incidence in Ukraine in general, and in the Volyn region and Lutsk in particular. Currently, a total of 1,383 city residents are registered at the regional tuberculosis dispensary for tuberculosis, of whom 530 have the active form of tuberculosis (including 118 patients who excrete tuberculosis mycobacteria). The tuberculosis incidence rate is high and exceeds the regional average indicators. Over the 9 months of the current year, an increase in incidence of 6.8% has been observed compared to the same period of the previous year, however such trends do not apply to the age group of children and adolescents, where, on the contrary, incidence rates remain low. It is well known that tuberculosis is a disease of the poor, socially disadvantaged segments of the population. This thesis is confirmed by the statistics of patients in Lutsk. Thus, 70% of patients belong to socially maladapted segments of the population: citizens who are below the poverty line, homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts, beggars, persons who have returned from places of imprisonment.

Within the framework of the National Program for Combating Tuberculosis, according to Fedir Koshel, there is currently sufficient provision of anti-tuberculosis drugs (3.10 UAH per 1 bed-day) and food in the inpatient facility (6.20 UAH per 1 bed-day), however, in general, inpatient care for patients could be better. The material and technical base of the regional tuberculosis dispensary is unsatisfactory. The premises require major repairs. The area per 1 bed is 2.8 sq. m., the normative indicator is 7.5. Also, preventive work to avoid tuberculosis incidence is ineffective, since society practically lacks understanding of the problem of tuberculosis infection. To overcome the problem of the spread of the disease, it is worth recommending that directors and owners of enterprises and institutions whose employees constantly come into contact with people undergo annual collective examination. So far, employees in the trade, catering, etc. sectors are covered by this procedure, although employees of, for example, banks, unfortunately, have no fewer chances of contracting this complex disease.

For more than one year, there has been talk of the need to relocate the regional tuberculosis dispensary from a densely populated district of the city. Since patients (even with the open form) move freely around the dispensary and beyond its boundaries, this creates additional routes for the spread of the disease. The introduction at the state level of compulsory treatment of patients with active tuberculosis and the establishment of legal liability for evading treatment would also partially help improve the results of combating the disease.

Having heard the information, the members of the executive committee recommended that the proposed City Program for Combating Tuberculosis be finalized. It is important that it contain only real steps – stages of implementation. However, concretization of the components of such a program will be fruitless until society understands that combating the disease is a task not only for medical professionals, that is, the disease is a problem not only medical but also social