World Tuberculosis Day 2023 - The importance of infection prevention

• A weak immune system, lack of hygiene, and poor nutrition are risk factors for infection with tuberculosis.
  
  
• Tuberculosis spreads mainly in poorer regions and in war situations. When hygienic conditions are difficult and people live together in close quarters, the risk of infection increases because tuberculosis is usually transmitted by droplets.
  
  
• Without treatment, the mortality rate of tuberculosis diseases is high and is about 50 %. ⁽²⁾ Tuberculosis is treated with a combination of several drugs that differ in their mechanisms and sites of action. However, there are an increasing number of tuberculosis strains worldwide that are resistant to the standard drugs and limit the treatment options.

These development trends illustrate how important infection prevention is.

For infection prevention, the @Robert Koch Institute recommends targeted hygiene measures and the use of special disinfectants which have at the claim "tuberculocidal" or "mycobactericidal" (according to EN 14348/ EN 14563/ VAH methods).

Sources:
(1) Epidemiologisches Bulletin 11 | 2023 vom 16. März 2023
(2) WHO Global Tuberculosis report 2022