Anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric are spreading a statement by Russian collaborator Volodymyr Rohov that since 2016 the number of TB patients in the Zaporizhzhia region has been on the rise. According to him, 70% of patients have a treatment-resistant form, and this was the result of American biological experiments, the closure of bacteriological laboratories, and the abolition of the diagnosis of tuberculosis among children. It's fake.

The fact-checkers of the VoxCheck project drew attention to the case. According to the Center for Public Health, in the Zaporizhzhia region in 2015-2021, the level of registration of new cases of the disease has decreased. Infection also decreased in 2022 compared to 2021 to 33.5 cases per 100,000 population. Deputy Minister of Health Ihor Kuzin explains that the high incidence in Ukraine is due to insufficient vaccination and untimely access to doctors. Indeed, in 2022, 119 patients in the Zaporizhzhia region were diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis for the first time. However, this is not the result of Western actions, but non-adherence to the treatment plan and a consequence of the previously ineffective system of care for tuberculosis. However, since 2007, an anti-tuberculosis bacteriological laboratory has been operating in Zaporizhzhia, and in 2020, a phthisis pulmonological center was established in Zaporizhzhia on the basis of the regional anti-tuberculosis dispensary. Diagnosis of tuberculosis is still carried out, mantoux is mandatory for children.

Russian propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulations of the biological laboratory on the territory of Ukraine. Thus, Russian propaganda is trying to discredit Western partners and intimidate Ukrainians. This is part of the narrative that “the West controls Ukraine”. Earlier, Detector Media refuted the fake that Ukraine collected bird flu strains in the Askania-Nova nature reserve.