The events are meant to raise awareness of the infectious disease that in 2014 killed 1.5 million people, including 380,000 of those living with HIV/AIDS.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: MARCH 24, 2016 00:27Long empty hospital corridor (illustrative)(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Although tuberculosis has been treated with antibiotics for many years, a growing number of patients’ bacteria are resistant to these overused drugs, according to the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization, which are marking World TB Day on Thursday.The events are meant to raise awareness of the infectious disease that in 2014 killed 1.5 million people, including 380,000 of those living with HIV/AIDS.Nearly 9.6 million were infected that year.The WHO is calling on countries and partners to “Unite to End Tuberculosis” and has set a target for wiping out TB in 2030.While there has been significant progress in the fight against TB, with 43 million lives saved since 2000, the battle is only half-won. Each day, over 4,000 people lose their lives to this infectious disease.Many of the communities that are most burdened by tuberculosis are poor, vulnerable and marginalized, with the main problem in 30 Third World countries. India, for example, is home to more people ill with TB and multidrug-resistant TB than any other country.As antibiotics are becoming less effective against TB, advanced countries including Israel are partnering with researchers to speed development of diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines and to improve delivery.The Health Ministry said that every year, there are more reports from around the world of extremely drug-resistant TB bacteria, thus limiting treatment. This occurs in Israel as well, as certain strains here have been found not to respond to existing antibiotic “cocktails.”The ministry’s TB and AIDS department and centers for diagnosis and treatment of TB continue to monitor these developments. In 2013, the WHO cited the Israeli program to fight TB in patients with resistant strains as being a “success story.”The ministry held a conference in Ramat Gan on Wednesday on the challenge of TB that was attended by Dr. Dennis Falzon, a representative of the WHO.Dr. Robert Koch discovered the Mycobacterium tuberculosis on March 24 in 1882, when one out of seven deaths in Europe and the US resulted from the disease.The ministry reported 366 new cases of TB in 2014. More than 82 percent of those inflicted were born outside Israel and half of them are not Israeli citizens.The ministry runs nine special TB diagnosis and treatment centers where patients are directly observed taking the cocktail to ensure they are getting the entire treatment, two testing labs and a TB department in Shmuel Harofeh Geriatric Hospital in Be’er Ya’acov.