Tuberculosis in Finland, 2011

Published: 29.03.12 Updated: 26.06.2012 12:55:21

According to the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland, there were over 300 cases of tuberculosis (TB) reported in the country in 2011.

Of these one third were immigrants from the countries with high incidence of tuberculosis, in comparison a decade ago there were only 10%. In the light of increase of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Europe there were 5multi-drug resistant TB cases reported in

Finland

in 2011. A year ago

Finland

has issued new recommendations on contact tracing for TB.

HIV spread; increasing injecting use and TB are causing problems in Russia, Baltic and other Eastern European countries. HIV infected persons and injecting drug users are one of the risk groups for TB, which due to certain barriers often may go untreated. A TUBIDU project with partners from several Eastern European countries was established to help empower health systems and community based organisations and increase cooperation among stakeholders in order to minimise barriers in accessing and following TB and HIV-related care and treatment. The project is supported from the 2008–2013 EU health programme.