The regrowth of tuberculosis in the 21st century
One of the most serious consequences of rural migration to European cities, linked to the processes of industrialization, was the expansion of tuberculosis, which becomes a social disease. The improvement of social and nutritional conditions, the ventilation of workplaces where numerous workers were concentrated and the discovery and commercialization of antibiotics, extraordinarily contracted mortality from tuberculosis and other bacterial diseases.
Antibiotics are indicated to fight bacterial diseases, but in many populations they have been used for viral diseases in humans, and also to enhance the growth and prevent diseases in domestic animals that are part of our diet. Resistance to antibiotics has become one of the greatest threats to global health, food security and sustainable development. This situation prolongs hospital stays, increases medical costs and also increases mortality.
It is urgent to develop national action plans to address resistance to tuberculosis, including educational programs for citizens of all ages, to avoid the post-antibiotic stage, in which many common infections and minor injuries would be potentially deadly, (besides tuberculosis, pneumonia, gonorrhea and salmonellosis).
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection (caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that is spread through droplets expelled when patients with active tuberculosis cough, sneeze or talk. If people who are “infected” have an effective immune system, the infection remains dormant in the lungs, but if they are weakened, the bacteria spread to other tissues, causing illness and death.
Malnutrition, advanced age and AIDS are important depressants of the immune system, and people infected with HIV are especially vulnerable to tuberculosis.
In 2015, it was estimated that around 37 million people in the world were infected with HIV / AIDS, and a third of those died from tuberculosis, the problem being especially acute in sub-Saharan Africa.
AIDS and tuberculosis © ISGlobal (Institute of Global Health, Barcelona)
WHO statistics 2018, indicate that the rate of new infections worldwide HIV was 0.05 (per 1,000 uninfected people), with a maximum of 1.24 in the African region, and a minimum the Pacific region Oriental. The countries with the highest incidences of HIV and tuberculosis in 2016 were all African
© OMS 2018