Scientists have made great progress in the fight against tuberculosis, but there is still a knowledge gap

November 27, 2019 / BIOON / -- now scientists have made important progress in the fight against tuberculosis and are diagnosed every year The number of TB cases is decreasing Recently, in the report on global tuberculosis released by WHO, they collected data from 202 countries and regions The report showed that the number of new TB cases decreased by 6.3% from 2015 to 2018, and the incidence rate of decline was also very obvious in non continent, that is, from 275 people in 2015 to /10 million to 231 /10 Photo source: eLife, but this improvement is still not enough to achieve the UN goal of ending tuberculosis by 2030 Globally, tuberculosis is still the main cause of single infectious disease death among people Despite the high vaccination coverage in epidemic areas and the widespread use of effective drug therapy, 10 million people will still be diagnosed in 2018 They are TB patients, and 1.4 million people died of TB Africa is still a serious area of TB, and its incidence rate is 24% of all TB patients The incidence rate of tuberculosis in the Central African Republic, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa is 500 or more per one hundred thousand population, and is the highest in the world TB is a highly complex global health problem, which can only be solved through political will, global cooperation and increased investment in TB research There are many risk factors for TB and AIDS that increase the incidence rate of tuberculosis, including HIV infection, smoking, alcohol abuse, age and diabetes In southern Africa, HIV is far more than other factors According to the latest data, about 85% of all deaths of HIV related TB patients occur in Africa The prevalence of TB and AIDS is closely related, so that researchers classify it as an epidemic HIV infected people are at least 10 times more likely to suffer from TB than other people; At present, researchers don't know why, in part, because HIV can target CD4 T cells, which are the key immune cells in the body to resist Mycobacterium tuberculosis Since 2000, the global mortality rate of TB patients infected with HIV has decreased by 60%, from 620000 in 2000 to 251000 in 2018, largely due to the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy and the nationwide spread of these drugs in southern African countries This progress has saved thousands of lives, but the two infectious diseases of AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa have not been fully understood In addition, as a direct result of the antiretroviral treatment program, the mortality rate of HIV patients is now declining, which means that the number of people living with AIDS is increasing, and because the life span of a large number of people receiving AIDS treatment is longer, it is difficult for researchers to predict how the epidemic of tuberculosis in southern Africa will be affected In addition to the HIV epidemic, there are many challenges that hinder our progress in ending TB by 2030, including the emergence of drug-resistant strains of TB, which can lead to an increase in the number of patients who are unresponsive to treatment or poor response to treatment Photo source: Wikipedia's next step today, new, shorter and more effective antibiotic programs show encouraging results in preventing patients from developing latent infections to active TB Recently, researchers announced significant price reductions for a key drug in these new prevention programs In order to achieve the goal of ending the epidemic, we need to make policy changes to accelerate the use of these therapies by the public Diagnosis The field is still a challenge for scientists At present, there are no simple blood or urine testing methods to accurately tell a clinician that a person has tuberculosis, but there are many very potential results Researchers need to conduct in-depth research to develop new testing methods and understand their working principles, which also helps them develop new types of TB treatment Therapy In addition, researchers are still not clear about many aspects of TB, such as why only a part of the population will be infected with the pathogen when individuals are exposed to Mycobacterium tuberculosis? At this time, researchers need to use some new tools, which is very important to clarify the reasons Documents such as the World Health Organization's global TB report are essential for benchmarking and assessing the introduction of new technologies and interventions, but they cannot tell the whole story Ongoing research by researchers and national prevalence surveys fill in some of the details of this deficiency and help to provide a more nuanced picture A strong, multidisciplinary TB research agenda requires political and financial strength to consolidate progress and end the deadly epidemic Reference materials: [1] global population report 2019 [2] global leadership of population and progress toward achieving global targets - 2017 [3] population, C., Hutton, B., Yazdi, F et al Efficiency and completion rates of rifapentine and isoniazid (3HP) compared to other treatment regions for later tuberculosis infection： a systematic review with network meta-analyses BMC Infect Dis 17， 265 (2017) doi：10.1186/s12879-017-2377-x 【5】 Scientists are gaining against tuberculosis， but knowledge gaps remain by Emily Wong， Al Leslie and Mohlopheni Jackson Marakalala， The Conversation