Tuberculosis and its Severity

What is Tuberculosis, and how serious is this problem?

TB, or Tuberculosis, is a chronic or acute contagious disease caused by a bacterial infection. TB is the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease, accounting for over a quarter of avoidable deaths among adults. It can affect several organs of the human body, including the brain, the kidneys and the bones, but it predominately manifests itself in the lungs where it is called "Pulmonary Tuberculosis".

According to the WHO, TB infection is currently spreading at the rate of one person per second. It kills more young people and adults than any other infectious disease and is the world's biggest killer of women. Researchers have calculated that 8-10 million people catch the disease every year, with three million dying from it. It causes more deaths worldwide than AIDS and Malaria combined. The WHO predicts that by 2020 nearly one billion people will be newly infected with TB, of them 70m will die. TB black spots include Eastern Europe with 250,000 cases a year, South East Asia; three million cases a year and sub-Saharan Africa with two million cases a year.

Tuberculosis, a sometimes crippling and deadly disease, is on the rise and is revisiting both the developed and developing world. The global epidemic is growing and becoming more dangerous. The breakdown in health services, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multi drug-resistant TB are contributing to the worsening impact of this disease. Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.

How TB Spreads:

TB is a contagious disease. Like the common cold, it spreads through the air. A person acquires a tuberculosis infection by inhaling tiny droplets of moisture contaminated with the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis bacteria. The source of these droplets is frequently from infectious individuals who expel thousands of water droplets into the air every time they cough, sneeze, talk or spit. A person needs only to inhale a small number of these to be infected. The most common places for becoming infected with TB are right in your own home, or your workplace. Often the source of the infection is unknown since the initial infection may have occurred several years ago.

Left untreated, each person with active TB will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year and these people are mostly likely to be family members, friends, coworkers, and those who share the same breathing space.