Latent tuberculosis
Latent tuberculosis (LTB), also called latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is when a person is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but does not have active tuberculosis (TB). Active tuberculosis can be contagious while latent tuberculosis is not, and it is therefore not possible to get TB from someone with latent tuberculosis. The main risk is that approximately 10% of these people (5% in the first two years after infection and 0.1% per year thereafter) will go on to develop active tuberculosis. This is particularly true, and there is added risk, in particular situations such as medication that suppresses the immune system or advancing age.
"LTBI" redirects here. For the airport, see Eskişehir Airport.Latent tuberculosis
Latent tuberculosis infection
The identification and treatment of people with latent TB is an important part of controlling this disease. Various treatment regimens are in use for latent tuberculosis. They generally need to be taken for several months.
Epidemiology[edit]
Tuberculosis exists in all countries in the world, though some countries have a larger number of people infected than others. Per 100,000 people, Eswatini has the greatest number of tuberculosis cases in the world (627). Second is Cambodia (560), followed by Zambia (445), fourth is Djibouti (382), fifth is Indonesia (321), Mali (295), Zimbabwe (291), Kenya (291), Papua New Guinea (283) and Gambia (283).[35]
The United States, Sweden and Iceland have some of the lowest rates of tuberculosis at 2 per 100,000.[35] Canada, Netherlands, Jamaica, Norway, Malta, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda also have low infection rates, at 3 per 100,000. In North America, countries over 10:100,000 include Mexico (14), Belize (18), Bahamas (19), Panama (28), El Salvador (36), Nicaragua (35), Honduras (46), Guatemala (48), and the Dominican Republic (88).[35]
Most Western European countries have less than 10 per 100,000 except Spain (14) and Portugal (16), while Eastern and Southern European countries tend to have a greater number, with Romania (94) being the highest.[35]
In South America, the countries with the greatest rates of tuberculosis per 100,000 are Bolivia (30) and Guyana (18), with the remaining countries having less than 10:100,000.[36]
"One-third of the world's burden of tuberculosis (TB), or about 4.9 million prevalent cases, is found in the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East Asia Region."[37]
"About one-third of the world's population has latent TB, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with disease and cannot transmit the disease,"[8] and most of those cases are in developing countries.[7]
"In the US, over half of all active TB cases occur in immigrants. The reported cases of active TB in foreign-born persons has remained at 7000–8000 per year, while the number of cases in US-born people has dropped from 17,000 in 1993 to 6,500 in 2005. As a result, the percentage of active TB cases in immigrants has increased steadily (from 29% of all cases in 1993 to 54% in 2005),"[8] and most of those cases are in developing countries.[7]