It is a disease that most often attacks the lungs and remains the deadliest infection in the world, ahead of AIDS. It is not due to a virus (like the flu, cold or Covid-19) but to a bacterium: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also called “Koch’s bacillus”, named following its discoverer, the German Robert Koch, who was the first to identify the rod-shaped bacterium in 1882. A discovery that earned him the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1905.
Tuberculosis is transmitted from person to person mainly through the air. The bacillus will cause lesions in the lungs called “tubercles”, hence the name of the disease. In the vast majority of cases, patients suffer from cough, fever, night sweats, and may have anorexia.
1.5 million deaths every year worldwide
It causes 1.5 million deaths each year, especially among the poorest populations and particularly in India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa. The more populations are exposed to precariousness, promiscuity, undernutrition, illiteracy, live in war zones or are infected with AIDS, the more they can be affected.
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Tuberculosis can be treated with antibiotics (such as cycloserine, ethionamide or streptomycin). There is also a vaccine: the Calmette and Guérin bile vaccine or BCG, which is no longer compulsory but remains recommended for certain children depending on their living environment. The vaccine has been known to leave some people with a round scar, most often on the left arm where the vaccine was given.
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