9 million people catch tuberculosis each year. A third of them will not be diagnosed due to lack of access to health systems. The World Health Organization (WHO) recalls the challenge of generalizing diagnoses to vulnerable populations on the occasion of World Day on March 24.
The stakes are high at a time when 95% of tuberculosis deaths occur in low-income countries. “It is crucial to diagnose all forms of tuberculosis earlier and more quickly”, explains Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, quoted by Destination santé. With a better diagnosis, “we increase the chances of prescribing the right treatment and curing patients, and we help stop the spread of resistant forms.”
More effective treatments
The fight against tuberculosis requires better diagnosis and more effective treatment. Drug management is based on the combination of four antimicrobials that must be taken carefully for six months. Since 1995, more than 56 million lives have been saved, estimates the WHO.
With the increase in resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs in recent years, research has focused on new molecules. Two new ones will be developed: “It is a major hope for some patients, considered incurable, a resistance so severe that there was no longer any therapeutic possibility”, says Dr. Francis Varenne, coordinator of the working group on tuberculosis at Médecins sans frontières (MSF), cited by RFI.
Resurgences in France
While the disease mainly affects poor and vulnerable communities, it has not completely disappeared in France. Cases of infection are more numerous in Ile-de-France. Seine Saint-Denis is the French department where the incidence rate of tuberculosis is the highest with 31 cases per 105 inhabitants. “Seine-Saint-Denis is the only department in Ile-de-France where the average household income remains lower than the national average and with a greater proportion of notified cases of foreign origin” explains the watch institute sanitary.
No worries, however. Tuberculosis epidemics remain rare. They are well controlled when they occur, as was the case with the 29 cases of infections identified in a high school in Evry in Essonne last year.
