Hygiena 2023, 68(1):10-18 | DOI: 10.21101/hygiena.a1831

Tuberculosis in the light of current knowledge with a focus on the development of new vaccines

Jan Bělohlávek, Bohdana Rezková

Masarykova univerzita, Lékařská fakulta, Ústav veřejného zdraví, Brno, Česká republika

Tuberculosis is still a major global health problem. It affects over 10 million people each year and claims over 1.5 million victims. Although it is a disease that has been with mankind for thousands of years, it is only modern technology and the development of molecular biology that have enabled to reveal and explain the often unsuspected links and truths about the causative agent, the pathogenesis of the disease and its prevention. The current favourable epidemiological situation in developed countries is due to socio-economic changes and a general improvement in the health of the population rather than to the effect of the introduction of the BCG vaccine. On the other hand, countries suffering from poverty and war are still among those with the highest morbidity and mortality from this disease. The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS infection and the gradual increase in antimicrobial resistance of the causative agent of tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) have greatly complicated the situation and have forced experts to focus renewed attention on the study of the disease, its diagnosis, treatment and, above all, the search for new avenues of prevention, including the development of new vaccines. This paper presents an overview of what is known so far about the causative agent of the infection, the mode and conditions of its spread, the current epidemiological situation, the disease itself and its prevention, with an emphasis on new findings that provide incentives to rethink the experiential views.

Keywords: tuberculosis prevention, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, epidemiology, vaccination

Received: March 2023; Revised: March 6, 2023; Accepted: March 13, 2023; Published: March 31, 2023  Show citation