World Tuberculosis Day 2020 - Progress and targets
"The year 2020 marks the beginning of a decade that will be decisive for the elimination of tuberculosis," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Lothar H. Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute, on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that is generally easily treatable, but nevertheless affects about 10 million people worldwide every year and kills about 1.5 million - causing more deaths than any other infectious disease.
In recent years, many courses have been set for tuberculosis elimination, such as improved diagnostic procedures and new Antibiotics for shorter and more tolerable treatment of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. There has also been progress in surveillance: For example, the RKI 2020, together with the National Reference Center for Mycobacteria, will launch the first integrated molecular surveillance for the tuberculosis pathogen. The project, which is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Health, will systematically analyze the genomes of the pathogens (microbial genetic fingerprint), link them to the reporting data and continuously evaluate the results. "Only with integrated molecular surveillance can many outbreak events and transmission chains be detected and stopped," Wieler emphasizes. In addition, important pathogen characteristics such as antibiotic resistance can be systematically monitored.
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