March 24 is World Tuberculosis Day, which has been designated today because Robert Koch made the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium „Mycobacterium Tuberculosis“ on March 24, 1882, the „greatest infectious killer in the world“. At the moment, 1.5 million people are still dying from the consequences of a TB disease after infestation of the lungs and other organs, the World Health Organization (WHO) states in a statement. In 2018, 4,000 people worldwide per day will have died as a result of TB. The WHO warns that preventive measures with one or more antibiotics should not be neglected, because 25 percent of the worldwide population carry the pathogen from the family of mycobacteria and its 160 members. If the immune system is weakened, healthy carriers of the bacterium are at risk of contracting the disease. This is why the corona virus Sars-CoV-2, which causes lung disease Covid-19, is so dangerous for TB patients. The lungs of tuberculosis-infected people are pre-damaged by the disease. The WHO complains that the basic constitution of these people is poor due to poverty and that there is a lack of access to adequate health treatment. Therefore other pathogens pose extreme danger. In 2018, 500,000 people were also resistant to common medicines. For the future, the WHO demands that almost two billion people who are at risk must receive consistent preventive treatment in order to prevent the outbreak of the TB disease and thus ward off the suffering and save lives. The risk groups include people living in densely populated areas and regions affected by poverty, but also people with HIV and an immune system that is not intact, and above all people who live in close contact with tuberculosis patients, such as relatives. The international goal of the WHO is to completely eradicate tuberculosis by 2050.
