World Tuberculosis Day 2022: Invest to End TB, Save Lives

Each year on 24th March, World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated with an aim to spread awareness about the disease and to encourage people to step forward to help end global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.

World Tuberculosis Day is observed on 24th March, which also marks the day when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) in 1882, which opened the paths for scientists to diagnose and find a cure for the disease. This year, the theme of the day is ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives.’

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, over 4100 people lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress made in the fight to end TB. For the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020. According to the statistics, around 99,00,000 people fell ill with TB in 2020 and 15,00,000 people died of TB in 2020.

What Is Tuberculosis?

Dr. Rajesh Vukkala, MD (General Medicine), Consultant Physician at VINN Hospital, Hyderabad, explains that Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection, caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is said to have a higher prevalence in people who are not living a healthy lifestyle like those who are alcoholic, smokers or people with lower immunity, etc. It primarily affects the lungs, but the bacteria can also affect other parts of the body like the kidney, brain and spine.

Tuberculosis affected lungs vs normal lungs

Signs and symptoms

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of TB disease depend on where in the body the TB bacteria are growing. TB bacteria usually grow in the lungs (pulmonary TB). TB disease in the lungs may cause symptoms such as

• a bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer
• pain in the chest
• coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs)

Other symptoms of TB disease are

• weakness or fatigue
• no appetite
• chills
• fever
• sweating at night

Dr. Vukkala explains that TB can be diagnosed in the following ways:

1. Sputum Culture
2. Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) Test
3. PCR Test

How is it treated?

WHO informs that TB disease is curable. It is treated by a standard 6-month course of 4 antibiotics. Common drugs include rifampicin and isoniazid. In some cases, the TB bacteria do not respond to the standard drugs. In this case, the patient has drug-resistant TB. Treatment for drug-resistant TB is longer and more complex. If the treatment is not properly completed, the disease can become drug-resistant and can spread. Therefore, medical assistance is extremely important to prevent the disease from worsening.