London, March 13 (IANS) While persistent cough has been a hallmark symptom of tuberculosis, there should be new ways identified to diagnose the world’s most deadly infection as a new study on Wednesday showed a majority of the patients do not have the common symptom.
The study, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, analysed data on more than 600,000 individuals in Africa and Asia.
The results showed that 82.8 per cent people with tuberculosis had no persistent cough and 62.5 per cent had no cough at all.
The infection is predominantly transmitted by coughing, but probably also through simply breathing, said researchers from the Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC) in the Netherlands.
“Our results indicate the probable reason why, despite huge efforts to diagnose and treat the disease, the tuberculosis burden across Africa and Asia is hardly declining. We already knew that there was a giant gap between the 10.6 million who got ill with tuberculosis and the 7.5 million cases that were registered by health authorities in 2022,” said Frank Cobelens, Professor of Global Health at Amsterdam UMC.
“A persistent cough is often the entry point for a diagnosis, but if 80 per cent of those with TB do not have one, then it means that a diagnosis will happen later, possibly after the infection has already been transmitted to many others, or not at all,” he added.
Further, the analysis of national monitoring schemes in 12 countries showed similar results.
While the majority lacked cough, more than a quarter of those with TB had no symptoms at all — these were seen more in women than men.
Also a quarter of the patients without cough showed high loads of bacteria in their sputum and were probably highly infectious.
“When we take all of these factors into account, it becomes clear that we need to really rethink large aspects of how we identify people with TB. It is clear that current practice, especially in the most resource-poor settings will miss large numbers of patients with TB. We should instead focus on X-ray screening and the development of new inexpensive and easy-to-use tests” Cobelens said.
–IANS
rvt/svn
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by BhaskarLive.in and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of BhaskarLive.in We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, BhaskarLive.in takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
