Botosani is the leader in the number of tuberculosis cases

Botoşani appears in a new black list regarding citizens’ health. The county has one of the highest incidences of tuberculosis cases, namely 75 cases/100,000 inhabitants, along with Dolj, Teleorman, Giurgiu and Brăila.

According to the doctors from the “Marius Nasta” Institute of Pneumophthisiology, Romania has two areas with a high risk of infection with the Koch bacillus, which causes tuberculosis, namely the south and the east. In a message published on the occasion of World TB Day, the director of the hospital, doctor Beatrice Mahler, points out that poor air quality can influence human health in various ways, and research indicates that there is a link between the increased level of suspended particles and tuberculosis.

“Assessing the risk of Koch infection from an air quality perspective creates a different perspective in the fight against TB”, she writes, according to rador.ro.

According to a press release from the Institute, the decrease in immunity as a result of exposure to pollutants such as fine particles (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides and other toxic substances can weaken the body, making it more vulnerable to infections, including tuberculosis. Also, the worsening of pre-existing diseases such as asthma or chronic bronchitis can make a person more susceptible to tuberculosis.

How can we prevent the disease?

The manager of the Institute of Pneumophthisiology “Marius Nasta” highlighted that it is essential to intensify efforts to prevent and control tuberculosis, including by improving access to diagnosis and treatment, educating the community and promoting hygiene and healthy life practices.

“By addressing both the causes of pollution and the risk factors for tuberculosis, we can hope to reduce the incidence of the disease and protect public health. These measures must aim at reducing pollutant emissions, promoting clean and renewable energy, with the aim of improving air quality in urban areas”, declared Beatrice Mahler.

What is tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infection that can cause lesions throughout the body, but having a tropism for pulmonary localization as a result of the mode of transmission.

Two days ago, the coordinator of the National Tuberculosis Control Program, Gilda Popescu, a doctor at the same hospital, announced that last year our country registered an increase in newly diagnosed cases of TB, after 10 years of constant decrease. Romania remains, moreover, the country with the highest incidence of the disease in the entire European Union.

“For Romania, the tuberculosis incidence rate has decreased since 2002, when we had 142.2 percent of the thousand inhabitants and 30,965 notified cases of tuberculosis,” says Dr. Gilda Popescu. Last year, the tuberculosis incidence rate was 48/100,000 inhabitants, with 9,572 cases registered, of which 429 were children, the “Marius Nasta” Institute informed on Friday.

The number of cases of illness is increasing

The data of the National Program for the Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis, subordinate to the Ministry of Health, under the coordination of IPMN, show that in 2023 the incidence rate of tuberculosis, among the population, reached 48 registered cases per hundred thousand inhabitants, compared to 46.3 in 2022 and 39.7 in 2021. Compared to the previous year, the current figures are increasing by more than 700 patients, in 2022 8,824 cases of tuberculosis were registered, of which 327 were children.

This is the third consecutive year of increase in the incidence of tuberculosis in Romania.

The counties with the highest incidence of tuberculosis are Dolj, Teleorman, Giurgiu, Brăila and Botoşani, where over 75 cases/100,000 inhabitants were registered. At the opposite pole are Covasna, Bistrita-Năsăud, Alba, Braşov and Sălaj with less than 30 cases/100,000 inhabitants, according to Agerpres.

Tuberculosis remains one of the most infectious diseases in the world, but it can be prevented and cured. Because of this disease, more than 4,100 people die every day, and almost 28,000 acquire it. Global efforts to combat tuberculosis have saved an estimated 66 million lives since 2000.

In 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of deaths from tuberculosis increased for the first time in over a decade, according to www.who.int.