New Treatment for TB Challenge Remains
Now scientists have discovered with a new study how TB controls or accelerates its growth at the molecular level. A new line of antibiotics against TB has been identified in a study led by the University of Surrey and Oxford. Both TB infection and disease can be cured with the use of antibiotics.
Amit Baijnath Garg, Senior Journalist-Writer
A recent study says that about a quarter of the world's population is estimated to be infected with Tuberculosis (TB) bacteria, even though they are not even aware of it. About half of people with TB can be found in 8 countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and S. Africa. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), most people who are affected with TB worldwide live in low and middle income countries. According to an estimate, 1.3 million deaths occur every year in the world due to TB. Of these, only 5-15 percent falls ill with active TB disease. The rest have TB infection, but they are not sick and cannot spread the disease. Now scientists have discovered with a new study how TB controls or accelerates its growth at the molecular level. A new line of antibiotics against TB has been identified in a study led by the University of Surrey and Oxford. Both TB infection and disease can be cured with the use of antibiotics. However, it is also a fact that nowadays most of the antibiotics are not effective in the treatment of TB or have become resistant to the drugs.
In this study published in Nature, the research team revealed that the newly discovered DNA modification mechanism involves two enzymes, DarT and DarG. Reversibly modify chromosomal DNA to make switches that coordinate with bacterial replication. It becomes heavily toxic to bacteria by interfering with the DarT and DarG systems and belongs to a new class of antibiotics. TB and COVID-19 are both infectious diseases that primarily attack the lungs. Symptoms are similar in both diseases. However, in TB the disease duration is long and the onset of disease is slow.
TB patients should take precautions to prevent COVID-19 and continue TB treatment as per the prescribed regimen, as advised by the health authorities. The study describes a new part of DNA biology that may be treated with new antibiotics. Lead researcher Graham Stewart, Prof of Molecular Bacteriology at the University of Surrey (England), said that before COVID-19, tuberculosis killed more people each year than any other infectious disease, and that it could become a chronic condition once the epidemic subsides.
Here, more people have died in 2020 than in the year 2019 and relatively few people have been diagnosed with this disease. Fewer patients have been treated for prevention or treatment. WHO said that a recently released report reaffirms fears that the pandemic and disruptions to essential services may affect progress against TB. About 15 lakh people died last year. The UN health agency has projected that the number of people living with tuberculosis and the death toll is expected to increase even more in the years 2021 and 2022.
In the year 2019, the number of new patients was 71 lakh, but in 2020 only 58 lakh new patients were detected. The organisation estimates that at present there are 41 lakh TB patients who are either not aware of their disease or are not informed about it by government agencies. In the year 2019 this number was estimated at 29 lakhs. The decline in the number of new TB cases reported between 2019 and 2020 has been observed mainly in some countries. These include India (41 percent), Indonesia (14 percent), the Philippines (12 percent) and China (8 percent). The number of people receiving treatment for TB prevention has also decreased. In the year 2020, 28 lakh people received treatment for the prevention of the disease, which is 21 percent less than in 2019.
The report also states that investment remains a challenge for countries responsible for 98 percent of TB cases. In the year 2020, 81 percent of the total funds available were from domestic sources. BRICS countries; Brazil, Russia, India, China and S. Africa also account for 65 per cent of the total domestic wealth. At the same time, global expenditure on TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention services has fallen from Rs 5 billion 80 crore to Rs 5 billion 30 crore. This is half the annual target of $13 billion in funding needed to respond to TB by 2022. The report calls on all countries to take urgent measures to restore much-needed TB services. In parallel, investment in TB research and innovation must be doubled and the social, environmental and economic factors responsible for TB must be addressed through coordinated action in health and other areas.
