Tuberculosis and 2 Billion People
Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection, most commonly affects the
lungs. Tuberculosis can also affect the central nervous system,
lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system,
bones and joints. Often Called TB for short, tuberculosis is the
most common major infectious disease today. With that title the
virus is infecting two billion people which is approximately
one-third of the world's population. Nine million new cases of
active disease annually, resulting in two million deaths. Most
of these cases and deaths are in developing countries.
Ninenty percent of those that are infected have asymptomatic
latent TB infection (LTBI). This is alot of numbers: There is a
ten percent chance that in the lifetime of LTBI that it will
progress to active TB disease. This active disease if left
untreated, will kill more than fifty percent of its victims. All
of these numbers make tuberculosis one of the top three infectious
killing diseases in the world. HIV/AIDS kills 3 million people
each year, TB kills 2 million, and malaria kills 1 million.
Tuberculosis is caused by a slow-growing aerobic bacterium that
divides every 16 to 20 hours. This division is extremely slow
when compared to other bacteria, which tend to have division
times that are measured in minutes.
In many patients the infection of Tuberculosis waxes and wanes.
Treatment with appropriate antibiotics kills bacteria and allows
healing to take place. Areas where Tuberculosis has affected
will eventually be replaced by scar tissue. A complete medical
evaluation for Tuberculosis includes a medical history, a
physical examination, a tuberculin skin test, a serological
test, a chest X-ray, and microbiologic smears and cultures. This
is quite an extensive procedure as you can see, but if you look
at the numbers above it is a necessary process.