A quarter of the world's population at risk of tuberculosis: study

London: A new study reveals that a quarter of the world's population is at risk of contracting tuberculosis. The study, published in the European Respiratory Journal, shows that one in four people in the world carries a bacterium of tuberculosis in the body. Tuberculosis, caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, affects more than 10 million people each year and kills up to 2 million, making it the deadliest infectious disease.

In addition, many people are infected with TB bacteria without having an active disease called latent TB. The study, which relies on tests carried out on 351,811 people, points out that it will be extremely difficult to achieve WHO's goal of eliminating tuberculosis from tuberculosis. Here 2035.

"In any case, the goal can not be achieved without addressing the high incidence of latent TB, as all infected people are at risk of developing active TB later in life," said Christian Wejse, badociate professor at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

For this study, Danish and Swedish researchers examined 88 scientific studies conducted in 36 different countries to describe the occurrence of latent TB infection. The study indicates that between one fifth and one quarter of the population is suffering from latent tuberculosis.