16% of medical workers have latent TB

It was found that 16% of medical workers such as diseases and medical clinics had latent tuberculosis. Tuberculosis latency refers to a condition in which a tuberculosis bacterium enters the body, but is not inhibited by immunity to cause the disease. There are no particular symptoms and no infectivity for others. If the immune system weakens, the tubercle bacillus will grow and develop. In general, about 10% of latent TB patients become active TB and 90% simply remain latent TB infection.

Ilsan National Health Insurance Hospital (740 beds) The survey showed that 1,165 health workers have tuberculosis.

According to the survey results, 271 (16%) of 1655 patients were diagnosed with latent tuberculosis.

The incidence of latent TB was higher in men with higher incidence of TB (1.5 times higher than in women). The incidence of latent TB among hospital-based diabetic workers was 2.8 times higher than that of non-diabetic workers.

It is necessary to confirm the possibility of latent tuberculosis if the worker is in contact with patients with active tuberculosis who are male hospital workers diagnosed with diabetes [19659002] If the risk of developing tuberculosis is high, you will receive drugs for the prevention of active TB. Drug treatment can prevent more than 90% of TB outbreaks.

It is important to maintain immunity because latent TB carriers can progress to (active) TB, for example, when their immune system weakens rapidly.

On the other hand, the 2016 Globalization of the World Health Organization (WHO) According to the report on Tuberculosis, Tuberculosis is one of the top 10 deaths in the world. In 2015, 10.4 million people suffered from tuberculosis.