Tuberculosis - I. T. Pyatnochka 2005

Epidemiological situation of tuberculosis worldwide

More than 6 billion people inhabit our planet. Among them, over 2 billion suffer from various ailments. Every fifth person on Earth lives in extreme hardship and poverty, which has become the leading cause of death worldwide. Today, tuberculosis is the most widespread infectious disease, ranking first in mortality among humans from infectious pathology. To make matters worse, new calamities are emerging. In 2001, the world had 30 million carriers of the HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS and 10 million AIDS patients, which significantly added to the ranks of those suffering from tuberculosis.

According to the World Health Organization, one-third of the world's population is infected with mycobacteria tuberculosis. In some countries, The rate of tuberculosis infection among the population reaches 80–90%. This also applies to Ukraine. Annually, each tuberculosis patient can infect 10 to 15 or more people, of whom 5–10% will develop active tuberculosis.

Worldwide, 7–10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis annually, including 4–4.5 million with bacterioexcretion, and approximately 3 million adults die from it (97% of whom are in developing countries), along with about 300,000 children. The total number of tuberculosis patients reaches 50–60 million.

Today, tuberculosis is the most threatening disease for all of humanity. The modern tuberculosis epidemic has acquired global proportions. In many PARTS OF THE world, the tuberculosis epidemic has spiraled out of control.

The highest incidence of tuberculosis is observed in the African and Asian regions, as well as the Pacific countries. The epidemiological situation regarding tuberculosis has also deteriorated in European countries, especially in the nations of the former socialist bloc (Fig. 3).

In 1998 in Europe, the incidence of tuberculosis was lowest in highly developed countries, notably Malta (4.2), Sweden (5), Norway (5.5), Iceland (6.2), and Italy (8.4 per 100,000 population); it was highest in Romania (114.6) and in the former USSR, specifically in Kyrgyzstan (127.8), Kazakhstan (126.4), Georgia (124.4), and Turkmenistan (86.1 per 100,000 population).

Class="center">

Fig. 3. Global incidence of tuberculosis, 2001 (according to WHO data)