[Tuberculosis in young children not vaccinated with BCG].

Manifestations of tuberculosis infection were studied in 168 infants aged 3 months to 3 years of whom 32.7% had not been given BCG vaccine at birth and 67.3% received improper vaccination (the postvaccinal skin signs were absent in all patients). In 58.9% of the infants, local tuberculosis ran along with complications: dissemination into the lungs and other organs were detected in 44.4%, bronchopulmonary lesions in 42.4%, destruction of lung tissue in 18.2% and tuberculous extrapulmonary lesions in 28.3% of the infants. Specific changes were located in several organs in 9.1%. Tuberculosis of the intrathoracic lymph nodes and primary tuberculosis complex had a complicated course 2.2 times and 3.2 times more frequently, respectively, in BCG unvaccinated than in vaccinated infants. Acute tuberculosis (tuberculous meningitis, miliary and progressive tuberculosis with fatal outcome) in infancy is common in 75-100% of the unvaccinated children. Hence immunoprophylaxis of tuberculosis in newborns must be developed and improved.