Tuberculosis is the most common fatal infectious disease in the world. “Every hour is diagnosed in 30 people in the European Region of the bacterial infection disease, TB,” – said in a report by the world health organization WHO and the EU prevention authority ECDC. Thus, the number of new cases is declining. The all-clear can not give the experts anyway.

“Although tuberculosis is an ancient, preventable, and curable disease, in addition to gives you still too much suffering and the death of many people in the EU and beyond”, said Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for health and food safety. For the report the experts had examined the data from the 53 countries of the European area, and also countries like Turkey or Uzbekistan in the analysis included. According to the report, and 275,000 new diagnoses and relapses have been registered in 2017 in the studied Region.

Increasing Resistance In The

Of antibiotics tuberculosis is curable, however, the pathogen will develop more and more resistance against the medium. More than 77,000 people in Europe suffered from difficult-to-treat, multidrug-resistant TB. That the medicines are not more striking, is a growing challenge, says the report. Most of the countries have problems in order to treat their patients successfully.

In the 31 countries of the EU and the European economic area (including Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland), there was 55.337 TB cases. There is only a little more than 1000 cases of multi-resistant were registered, enter tuberculosis. “Since the load in the Region is very different, must be adapted to the approaches from country to country,” said ECDC Director, and Andrea Ammon.

The goal is the disease in Europe by 2030 to eradicate. Prerequisite for a correct and quick diagnosis. “The sooner a Patient is diagnosed, the faster it can be treated, and a Transmission of the disease can be prevented,” – said in the report.

Worldwide around 1.6 million people have tuberculosis, more than Aids and Malaria combined, died in the year 2017. Depending on the estimate, around a quarter is infected up to one-third of the world’s population with the tuberculosis bacteria. But only five to ten percent of the bacteria spreading in the body so that the Affected are diagnosed and a treatment is necessary. Most frequently the lung is affected. The bacteria enter then when you Breathe, cough or Sneezing to the outside, people are contagious. Without treatment, half of the Patients die almost.

In Germany, ill in the past year, 5429 people with tuberculosis, according to the Robert Koch-Institute. Thus, the number remained the same, in comparison to the previous years. In order to eradicate the disease, a decrease of ten percent, however, is necessary. Therefore, additional efforts were also required in Germany. Although there is in this country, modern diagnostic methods and effective drugs. However, the disease is often diagnosed too late. Health boards would need to be faster about possible infections to the disease as quickly as possible to contain.