[A prognostic assessment of louse-borne typhus (Rickettsia prowazekii infection) in Russia].

From the 1950s to 1974 R.prowazekii infection was registered on the territory of Russia, mainly in the form of Brill's disease, represented by some individual cases in the focus of infection. In 0.25% of all of cases rickettsiosis was linked with group outbreaks of the family character (14 events), reflecting the epidemic form of the disease. From 1974 until the present time the correlation between the sources of infection and the infestation of the population with lice dropped below the critical level, ensuring the transmission of the infective agent among the susceptible human population. This led to the steady disappearance of rickettsiosis (a decrease in the number of rickettsiosis cases from several thousand in the 60s to less than 100 in 1991) due to natural demographic processes. After the disintegration of the USSR, the migration of the population from some regions, especially from those where military conflicts took place, did not affect this process. The return of the epidemic form of rickettsiosis in Russia is impossible.