The severity of clinical signs of pulmonary tuberculosis was studied in first detected patients. A hundred and sixty-eight case histories of the patients admitted to a town tuberculosis dispensary in 2004 were analyzed. A total of 87 (51.8%) patients with tuberculosis-suspected complaints visited the health care facility. Active preventive fluorographic studies revealed 81 (48.2%) patients. A hundred and twelve (66.6%) patients were diagnosed as having severe destructive forms of the disease in the phase of decay and dissemination. The clinical signs of a tuberculous process were less significant or absent in actively detected patients. Later detection of patients makes their people contact them longer and increases the probability of development of an active tuberculous process in the latter.