One third of cases infected with tuberculosis are foreigners

More than half of the cases infected with tuberculosis in Prague are foreigners, mostly from Ukraine. It is shown by the statistics of doctors, according to which the number of the infected is decreasing year-on-year. The problem is mainly foreigners who stay in our territory illegally and if ill, they get to the doctor only at an advanced stage of their illness.

Tuberculosis is a relatively common disease in developing countries; within the European Union, for example, it is above average in the Baltics, but also in other countries of the former Soviet Union, such as Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine.

According to epidemiologists, the greatest risk is posed by foreigners who are uninsured and reside in our territory illegally, as the TB treatment is expensive.

A specific example is the case of Maxima pojišťovna, which has a foreigner in its insurance who suffers from a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which means that it cannot be treated with commonly used medicine. The treatment is performed by a specialized workplace of the Thomayer Hospital in Prague, where he is administered special medicine for the treatment of this type of disease. His hospitalization lasted almost six months, and even now he is still taking special medicine. The estimate of the attending physicians for the time when the patient will have to take medication is another year and a half. The total expenses of this patient will cost Maxima pojišťovna more than a million crowns.In these cases, the role of the insurance company is completely negligible because if the foreigner were not insured, all expenses would remain with the patient.

According to experts, the basis of prevention is careful checking and examination of asylum seekers. However, this will not solve the problem with those who are in the Czech Republic illegally.