World TB Day is March 24, an event that commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. 1/3 of the world’s population is infected with TB. It is the leading killer of people who are HIV infected.
Tuberculosis, being airborne, is a highly contagious and easily transmittable disease that is treatable and curable, but only for those who know they have it. Each year 9.4 million new cases of active TB are diagnosed and 1.7 million TB related deaths are reported globally; annually. Every day 4500 people die from tuberculosis. TB is among the 3 greatest causes of death among women aged 15-44.
Numbers are high in India and China and the disease mainly affects 20-40 year olds.
(information from World Health Organization, medindia.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment