Tuberculosis register in the Czech Socialist Republic compared with similar registers in other European countries.

Computer technique in the Czech Socialist Republic, as well as in other countries, has been increasingly used for the evaluation of epidemiological situation of tuberculosis control programmes, and for the effectivity and impact of individual control measures. The notification system of new tuberculous cases detected has been switched in the Czech Socialist Republic into a longtime follow-up of all the patients reported for tuberculosis. In all the new or relapse cases the data on the form and location of disease, the mode of detection, time needed for diagnosis or possible delay in diagnosis due to patients or doctors are analyzed. At regular one-year intervals the data on the treatment and sick-leave are evaluated. The tuberculosis register was put into operation in the Czech Socialist Republic on January 1, 1981. The two-year experience revealed the possibility of operative registration of tuberculous patients if a reliable system of data collection from district departments tuberculosis and respiratory diseases and that of control programmes in a computer had been built up. The advantage of tuberculosis register consists in dynamic information on patients which is processed and published at one-month, three--month, or one-year intervals. The system of tuberculosis register in the Czech Socialist Republic is compared to the advantages and disadvantages of retrospective and prospective studies, one-phase or repeated surveys, and to registers operating in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Bavaria, and Scotland. The tuberculosis register in the Czech Socialist Republic is presently considered as an advantageous approach to the establishment of tuberculosis surveillance system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)