Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable.
TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
About one-quarter of the world’s population has a TB infection, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with the disease and cannot transmit it.
People infected with TB bacteria have a 5–10% lifetime risk of falling ill with TB. Those with compromised immune systems, such as people living with HIV, malnutrition or diabetes, or people who use tobacco, have a higher risk of falling ill.
When a person develops active TB disease, the symptoms (such as cough, fever, night sweats, or weight loss) may be mild for many months. This can lead to delays in seeking care, and results in transmission of the bacteria to others. People with active TB can infect 5–15 other people through close contact over the course of a year. Without proper treatment, 45% of HIV-negative people with TB on average and nearly all HIV-positive people with TB will die.”
“Symptoms and diagnosis
Common symptoms of active lung TB are cough with sputum and blood at times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. WHO recommends the use of rapid molecular diagnostic tests as the initial diagnostic test in all persons with signs and symptoms of TB as they have high diagnostic accuracy and will lead to major improvements in the early detection of TB and drug-resistant TB. Rapid tests recommended by WHO are the Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and Truenat assays.
Diagnosing multidrug-resistant and other resistant forms of TB (see Multidrug-resistant TB section below) as well as HIV-associated TB can be complex and expensive.
Tuberculosis is particularly difficult to diagnose in children.
Treatment
TB is a treatable and curable disease. Drug-susceptible TB disease is treated with a standard 4-month or 6-month course of 4 antimicrobial drugs that are provided with support to the patient by a health worker or trained treatment supporter. Without such support, treatment adherence is more difficult.
Since 2000, an estimated 74 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment.”
“Multidrug-resistant TB
TB medicines have been used for decades and strains that are resistant to one or more of the medicines have been documented in every country surveyed. Drug resistance emerges when TB medicines are used inappropriately, through incorrect prescription by health care providers, poor quality drugs, and patients stopping treatment prematurely.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most effective first-line TB drugs. MDR-TB is treatable and curable by using second-line drugs. However, second-line treatment options are limited and require extensive chemotherapy (of at least 9 months and up to 20 months of treatment) with medicines that are expensive and toxic.
In some cases, more extensive drug resistance can develop. TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to the most effective second-line TB drugs can leave patients with limited treatment options.
MDR-TB remains a public health crisis and a health security threat.
In accordance with WHO guidelines, detection of MDR/RR-TB requires bacteriological confirmation of TB and testing for drug resistance using rapid molecular tests, culture methods or sequencing technologies.
Treatment of MDR/RR-TB requires a course of second-line drugs for at least 9 months and up to 20 months, supported by counselling and monitoring for adverse events. WHO recommends expanded access to all-oral regimens.
Only about one in three people with drug resistant TB accessed treatment in 2020.
Worldwide in 2019, the treatment success rate of MDR/RR-TB patients was 60%. In 2020, WHO recommended a new shorter (9–11 months) and fully oral regimen for patients with MDB-TB. Research findings have shown that patients find it easier to complete the regimen, compared with the longer regimens that last up to 20 months. Resistance to fluoroquinolones should be excluded prior to the initiation of treatment with this regimen.
By the end of 2021, 92 countries started using shorter MDR-TB treatment regimens and 109 had started using bedaquiline, in an effort to improve the effectiveness of MDR-TB treatment.