Last Updated on March 1, 2023 by Shabnam Sengupta
The American Lung Association claims that Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the cause of tuberculosis, which is an airborne infection. Every year on March 24, people around the world commemorate Dr. Robert Koch’s announcement that he had discovered the bacillus that causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The opportunity to raise awareness of TB and the steps required to find, treat, and prevent this potentially fatal disease is provided by World TB Day. Therefore, this article emphasises the persistence of tuberculosis as well as methods for its eradication and elimination.
What is the primary reason that TB still exists today?
Despite being preventable and treatable, tuberculosis continues to be the most lethal infectious disease in the world, claiming 1.4 million lives annually. This is because tuberculosis is primarily a socioeconomic issue linked to crowded living conditions, poor hygiene, a lack of fresh water, and restricted access to medical care. Disease control is complicated by the absence of a well-organized healthcare infrastructure for tuberculosis case finding and treatment. The prevalence of tuberculosis is significantly understated by the statistics that are currently available due to the fact that many cases in developing nations go unrecognized, are misdiagnosed, or are not reported. Only cases with positive sputum smear results are diagnosed in these nations because there are so few cultural facilities.
What does it mean to “eradicate tuberculosis”?
Eradicating or preventing infectious tuberculosis is biologically feasible because the disease is treatable, curable, and has cure rates that are close to 100% when short-course therapy is used today. Successful treatment and early detection reduce transmission. It is possible to identify infected people who are more likely to contract infectious tuberculosis by tuberculin screening high-risk populations. Additionally, administering preventive therapy through medicinal prevention and receiving the BCG vaccine can at least partially prevent tuberculosis.
What does “tuberculosis elimination strategy” mean?
The Stop TB Strategy (2006–2015) paves the way for the long-term objective of eliminating tuberculosis as a global health problem by 2050. Achieving an incidence of less than 1 case of infectious TB per million people or a prevalence of latent TB infection of less than 1% is the definition of TB elimination. A number of nations have already completed the TB elimination phase, and more are anticipated to do so soon. The TB elimination phase is defined as fewer than 20 cases per 100,000 people.
The implementation of interventions in addition to conventional TB control measures is part of the strategy for TB elimination. It should be taken into consideration by nations with an intermediate and steadily declining TB incidence as well as those with a low incidence of the disease that are close to reaching the elimination phase.
The essential steps for effective TB control are outlined in the Stop TB Strategy. Priorities for implementing the TB elimination strategy and focusing on TB elimination in low-incidence countries both necessitate some modification of traditional TB control methods. The elimination phase employs:
- Management of high-risk groups
- Tb infection outbreaks
- Infection control interventions
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