An infection that can wait
According to the chief phthisiatrician of St. Petersburg, chief physician of the City TB dispensary Alexander Panteleev, TB is actually not that easy to catch – this is not the flu and not the coronavirus, which can be “caught” by passing by the infected. Most often, they fall ill with the patient’s relatives, close friends or colleagues – that is, those with whom the sick person had close and prolonged contact. But the risks of getting infected in the subway or bus, according to the doctor, are very small – in St. Petersburg with a population of 5.5 million, less than 2 thousand people suffer from tuberculosis, so the chance to meet them in transport is low.
But infection is not synonymous with disease. As the phthisiatrician explained, many different bacteria, viruses, fungi live in the human body, but at the same time he does not get sick. There may also be Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Koch’s wand) inside us, which will “doze off” – this is called a latent tuberculosis infection, or a healthy carriage of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Such a person does not get sick and is not contagious to anyone, he may never get sick, remaining just a carrier.
But it happens that mycobacterium “wakes up” and still causes the disease. For example, this can happen due to another disease that seriously weakens the immune system, or due to severe overwork, stress. In other words, you can get infected in childhood, but really get sick only at the age of 50, and recent fellow travelers on the bus will have absolutely nothing to do with it.
According to Alexander Panteleev, in recent years in the country, as well as in St. Petersburg, the incidence of tuberculosis has been steadily declining. meanwhile, this disease clearly responds to the social environment. So, the last big wave of tuberculosis in Russia was in the 1990s – early 2000s. As the specialist explained, then poor living conditions, malnutrition, stress, and unemployment affected.
Earlier, the chief freelance phthisiatrician of the Ministry of Health, Irina Vasilyeva, reported that a third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or Koch’s wand. And anyone can get sick, regardless of their social status and earnings.