World-TB-Day

When Robert Koch announced in 1882 that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, he laid the cornerstone for the combat against the plague. On the occasion of his announcement, March 24th has annually been observed as World-TB-Day. Hence, neither the disease must be forgotten nor the determined efforts to fight against it, because the danger is not averted yet. The WHO global TB report says that there were an estimated 10.4 million new TB cases worldwide in 2015. This number corresponds with the population of Portugal in 2013. Of the newly infected persons, 56% were men, 34% women and 10% were children. Six countries accounted for more than the half of all new cases: India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. Approximately 11% of all new TB cases were co-infected with HIV. In 2015, 1.4 million died of TB, which is equal to the number of inhabitants in Munich, Germany. Thus, TB remained one of the top 10 leading causes of death worldwide.

Furthermore, the continuous increase of resistant TB bacteria is alarming. In 2015, there were an estimated 480.000 new cases of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB). They mainly occurred in India, China and the Russian Federation. In addition, 117 WHO Member States reported cases of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) by the end of 2015. The average proportion of MDR-TB cases with XDR-TB was 9.5%. XDR-TB is defined as MDR-TB plus resistance to at least one fluoroquinolone and a second-line injectable agent.
It is questionable whether Koch could have foreseen these developments in his time. At that time, TB has been endemic in Europe and America and almost every fourth person died of the disease. However, due to improved living conditions, hygiene and treatment methods, the problem was not completely solved, but somehow shifted to other countries. Today, the emerging countries are suffering most of the disease. At the end, TB remains an illness of the poor and the weak.

As a diagnostics manufacturer we participate actively in the global fight against TB. We develop new and innovative diagnostics for the detection of TB bacteria and their antibiotic drug resistances. Our mycobacteria products are routinely used in many laboratories all over the world. And as a matter of fact, the use of our DST tests, GenoType MTBDRplus and GenoType MTBDRsl, is officially recommended by the WHO. 
Our motivation is to help affected persons. That’s why we continuously improve diagnostics in order to enable patients an adequate and efficient treatment!

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