"Yes! We can end tuberculosis.” This is the theme of the World Health Organization (WHO) for this year's World Tuberculosis Day, celebrated on March 24. On that day and throughout the month of March, the whole world carries out actions drawing attention to control activities related to the disease.
Tuberculosis is an infectious and transmissible disease caused by bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as Koch's bacillus. It affects the lungs, but can also manifest itself in any other organ of the body or in several of them at the same time, such as the pleura, ganglia, meninges, kidneys and bladder, liver, intestine, skin, bones, among others.
According to Mariângela Ribeiro Resende, infectious disease doctor at the Epidemiological Surveillance Section of the Hospital de Clínicas (HC) at Unicamp and professor of the infectology discipline at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) of the University, despite being a curable disease, the The number of new tuberculosis cases increased after a period of underdetection during the most critical moment of the Covid-19 pandemic. Brazil still has a high number of tuberculosis patients: there are 35 cases for every 100 inhabitants.
“People continue to get sick and die from tuberculosis. The cases have arrived at public health services very late”, warns Mariângela, who is also president of the Sociedade Paulista de Infectologia (SPI).
Signs of tuberculosis
The diagnosis must be carried out as quickly as possible, at the first signs of the disease. The main symptoms are: cough that started more than three weeks ago, weight loss and persistent fever. In these cases, it is recommended that the person seeks a Basic Health Unit for diagnosis and possible treatment of the disease, which is provided free of charge by the Unified Health System (SUS).
According to data from the Ministry of Health released on Friday, March 24, tuberculosis kills 14 people per day in Brazil. There were 5.072 deaths in 2021. This is the highest number in 19 years. The last time the country exceeded 5 deaths was in 2002.
webinar
On March 30th, from 13pm to 14:30pm, the webinar “Latent tuberculosis infection. Let’s think globally and act locally?”, a partnership between the FCM infectious diseases area and the HC Epidemiological Surveillance Center. Doctor Márcia Teixieira Garcia will address the issue of tuberculosis diagnosis. Doctor Antonio de Oliveira Camargo will discuss the topics of treatment and monitoring of cases of the disease. The webinar will be moderated by Mariângela Resende and Michele Silva. To watch, click here.
