Today, March 24, International Tuberculosis Day is celebrated, a contagious lung disease that is transmitted through the air, caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). It is transmitted from one person to another through droplets generated in the respiratory system patients with active lung disease.
Although this disease has a very low incidence in much of the first world, it is a major health problem in developing countries. Currently, according to the WHO, one third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis and every second there is a new infection in the world.
The World Day dedicated to this disease serves to generate a higher level of awareness regarding the global tuberculosis epidemic and of the efforts to end it. The date marks the day that Dr. Robert Koch detected in 1882 the cause of tuberculosis, the tubercle bacillus.
According to WHO estimates, in 2004 the highest number of new cases of tuberculosis was recorded in the Southeast Asia Region. The estimated incidence per inhabitant in the Sub-saharan africa (almost 400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) is almost double that in the Southeast Asia Region.
The highest number of deaths and the highest per capita mortality rate were recorded in the Africa Region, where HIV has caused a rapid increase in the tuberculosis epidemic.
In eastern Europe (mainly in the countries of the former Soviet Union) the incidence per inhabitant increased during the 1990s but, after reaching a maximum level around 2001, it has been decreasing.
Tuberculosis in Spain
About Spain, is one of the countries in Western Europe with the highest incidence of tuberculosis (17 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and year according to some sources, 20-25 cases according to others), while the average in other developed countries is four times lower. The number of tuberculosis in Spain has been decreasing in recent years, although there has been a slight increase in new infections in some areas of the country.
The incidence of tuberculosis had decreased, being almost limited to the elderly or marginal groups. It currently shows an increase in young adults, linked to the epidemic of infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and to immigration from countries where tuberculosis infection is frequent.
In our environment, tuberculosis infection is typical of children and young people, since 40% of infections occur before four years, 80% before 15 and 95% before 25.
In the case of children under four years old, the appearance of severe forms is more frequent.
Systematic vaccination with the vaccine against tuberculosis in newborns was abandoned in Spain in 1980 (1974 in Catalonia), currently only in the Basque Country.
According to the AEPap, the tuberculosis vaccine It would only be indicated in children not previously infected in the following situations:
- Close and unavoidable contact with contagious patients who are not or poorly treated, or with patients infected with tubercle bacilli resistant to commonly used antibiotics.
- Populations with infection rates greater than 1% per year.
- Groups with a high rate of tuberculosis infection and difficult access to health services.
The Millennium Development Goals include reducing the rate of tuberculosis in the world.
According to WHO, if the Strategy to Stop Tuberculosis is implemented in accordance with those established in the Global Plan, the improvements achieved will reduce the incidence of this disease by 2015 and halve its prevalence and mortality rates in all regions , except in the Africa Region and in Eastern Europe.
International Tuberculosis Day it is celebrated today with the motto "On the march against tuberculosis: Let us guide the fight towards elimination". And I think it is worth stopping in this disease that seems so far away but still rages in half the world.
