Tuberculosis Every day about 5,000 people die of TB

World Tuberculosis Day: Worldwide, around ten million people suffer from tuberculosis

More than ten million people worldwide have tuberculosis. The bacterial infectious disease requires around 5,000 lives per day - even though it has been curable for decades. On the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day, health experts are calling for drugs to be made affordable for people affected by poverty as well.

Rich countries need to do more

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 10.4 million people worldwide have tuberculosis in 2016. In total, 1.7 million people died last year. DAHW points this out to German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief on World Tuberculosis Day on March 24. Experts are calling on rich-country governments to invest more in research. "Medicines need to be affordable for people living in poverty in all countries," they write.

Health experts point out on World TB Day that around 5,000 people die of TB worldwide every day - even though the disease is actually treatable. (Image: DOC RABE Media / Fotolia.com)

Number of new patients remained constant

The infectious disease, which used to be called "consumption," claims around 5,000 lives every day. That's more than the death toll from HIV and malaria combined.

Although the number of deceased declined slightly, the number of newly ill patients remained constant.

According to DAHW, there are 600,000 TB-resistant forms and one million newly infected TB patients were HIV-infected at the same time.

It has been reported that widespread TB control and prevention are missing in many of the most affected countries.

Transmission by droplet infection

Tuberculosis (also: TBC) is a bacterial infectious disease that affects the lungs in particular. It used to be called "consumption.".

The triggers are so-called "mycobacteria", which predominantly affect the lungs and are mainly transmitted during coughing, sneezing and speaking.

At the beginning of the disease, nonspecific symptoms such as coughing, night sweats and a slightly elevated temperature are more likely to appear.

Later, the symptoms increase and it can include high fever, persistent cough with sputum and respiratory distress occur. The disease is usually treatable well with antibiotics.

No access to medical care

But especially refugees in African countries such as Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda often have no access to medical care.

Due to the poor spatial and hygienic conditions and the inadequate situation of nutrition, the disease breaks out quickly, especially in the confusing refugee camps, where more and more people are infected with the deadly disease.

If there are interruptions in treatment or discontinuation, TB bacteria can become resistant to common drugs. Then only very expensive drugs help.

Affordable drugs against resistant TB forms

The DAHW experts are therefore calling for the development of a reliable vaccine and effective and affordable medicines for the resistant forms of TB.

"The governments of the rich countries must specifically support research and at the same time make sure that the medicines developed from it are affordable in poor countries," states the statement.

The therapy of patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) still fails too often at the high cost.

Years can pass until the onset of the disease

In this country, the dangerous disease occurs again and again. At the end of last year, around 900 students in Dresden had to undergo a tuberculosis test, as several tuberculosis cases became known in two schools.

A few months earlier, the disease had been detected in a kindergarten child in Hesse.

Health experts say the disease is often overlooked during examinations, as it can take years from infection to the onset of TB.

As the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) writes on its website, there may even be "decades after infection" to a disease of tuberculosis, especially if the immune system is weakened. (Ad)