"Alarming" number of people infected with a latent form of drug-resistant TB

MThe researchers warned that more than 19 million people worldwide are infected with one of the most complex forms of dormant TB, threatening to fight the deadly disease.

In the first study to estimate the number of people living with latent multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, experts found that three out of every 1,000 people had the hard-to-treat bacteria – a "problem of concern ". high "figure that" threatens the goals of elimination ".

Tuberculosis is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. It kills about 1.7 million people and infects 10 million each year.

But nearly a quarter of the world's population unwittingly lives with the latent form of the disease – which means that Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria is inactive inside their body and can trigger symptoms at any time.

The eradication of latent TB is at the heart of efforts to fight the old disease, with 5 to 10% of people with the dormant infection developing active symptoms.