Tuberculosis remains a worldwide public health problem despite the fact that the causative organism was discovered more than 100 years ago and highly effective drugs and vaccines are available. TB is as old as the mankind, and is the most common cause of death due to a single infectious agent worldwide in adults.
TB is a specific infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium TB (MTB). The disease primarily affects lungs and causes pulmonary TB. It can also affect intestine,...
more »Tuberculosis remains a worldwide public health problem despite the fact that the causative organism was discovered more than 100 years ago and highly effective drugs and vaccines are available. TB is as old as the mankind, and is the most common cause of death due to a single infectious agent worldwide in adults.
TB is a specific infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium TB (MTB). The disease primarily affects lungs and causes pulmonary TB. It can also affect intestine, meninges, bones and joints, lymph glands, skin and other tissues of the body. The disease is usually chronic with varying clinical manifestations.
According to conservative estimates, there are 15-20 million cases of infectious TB in the world. This infectious pool is maintained by the occurrence of 7.25 million new cases and three million deaths each year. The advanced countries had achieved spectacular results in the control of TB,though it is showing reemergence. The problem is acute in developing countries which account for about 95 per cent of TB cases, with South-east Asia region, Western pacific and Africa being the worst affected regions.
Worldwide, the number of people infected with both HIV and TB is rising. In fact, TB has formed a lethal partnership with HIV. The HIV virus damages the body's natural defences, the immune system and accelerates the speed at which TB progresses from a harmless infection to a life-threatening condition. TB is already the opportunistic infection that most frequently kills HIV-infected people.
Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is resistant to both isoniazid and rifampicin,is among the most worrisome elements of the pandemic of antibiotic resistance. Globally, about three per cent of all newly-diagnosed patients have MDR-TB. The proportion is higher in patients who have previously received anti-TB treatment reflecting the failure of programmes to ensure complete cure of patients with TB.
The overall cure rate among patients with MDRTB is just 50%.
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