Tuberculosis (TB)
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
It can practically affect any organ of the body.
The most common ones are the lungs, pleura (lining around the lungs), lymph nodes, intestines, spine, and brain.
It is an airborne infection that spreads through close contact with the infected, especially in densely populated spaces with poor ventilation.
BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guerin, is a vaccine for tuberculosis (TB) disease.
Infection Prevalence:
Every year, 10 million people fall ill with TB.
Despite being a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer.
TB is the leading cause of death of people with HIV and also a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.
India has set goal to achieve rapid decline in the burden of tuberculosis (TB) morbidity and mortality, while working towards the elimination of TB in the country by 2025
Challenges in achieving goal
There are various risk factors that contribute to the incidence and treatment outcomes of tuberculosis.
Undernourishment: Nearly 7.44 lakh TB patients were undernourished in 2022.
To improve nutrition, the government provides monthly support of Rs 500 to nearly one crore beneficiaries.
Other than that, the Ni-kshay Mitra programme calls for the donation of food baskets
HIV: People living with HIV have a 20-times higher risk of developing symptoms of TB as compared to the normal population
Diabetes: Of the 3.70 lakh TB patients with diabetes globally in 2022, 1.02 lakh were in India as per estimates.
Diabetes escalates the likelihood of contracting TB two-to-threefold, which in turn is linked to increased risk of Multi-Drug Resistant TB.
The TB treatment also does not work as well in diabetics.
Alcohol and Tobacco Use: A daily intake of more than 50 ml of alcohol increases the risk of TB infection, active infection and recurrence of infection.
In 2023, around 19.1 lakh or 75% of TB patients were screened for tobacco use, of whom 11% were identified as tobacco users.
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