Increased tuberculosis cases in recent years

1993/09/01 Furundarena Salsamendi, Jose Ramon Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

According to a study by the study group on tuberculosis and respiratory infections in the National Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery, more than 20,000 cases of tuberculosis appear each year.

Since all cases are not reported and the health authorities' limited awareness of the problem is unknown the state of the epidemic. Therefore, the aforementioned group has been collecting data since 1988. According to the information collected, the prevalence of the disease is 1% for people older than 6 years and 3% for people older than 14 years. The average rate of new annual cases in the last 5 years has been 36 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than that of other developed countries. According to this group, this shows that the fight against tuberculosis in recent decades has been insufficient. Therefore, we are still very far from controlling the disease because year after year more cases are detected.

Compared to other States of the European Economic Union, after Portugal Spain is the country with the highest prevalence of tuberculosis and ranks first in absolute numbers.

Another consequence is that tuberculosis is widespread among young people. The resulting epidemiological curve is more similar to that of developing states than to industrialized countries.

Other developed countries have increased tuberculosis cases. In countries like Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Japan or the United States, an increase has been observed ranging from 10% to 35%.

Regarding this issue, it is worth mentioning that a research project has been launched at the Faculty of Medicine of Zaragoza and in collaboration with the European Economic Association (EEC) with the aim of finding an effective vaccine against tuberculosis. This work aims to improve its effectiveness by transforming the only existing vaccine (BCG). With the BCG vaccine only positive results are obtained in 70% of cases and this effectiveness due to its incidents is not used in large vaccination campaigns. It is now intended to achieve 100% efficiency in developed States and, above all, to combat resistant bacteria that begin to appear in AIDS.

Head of Responsible Research at the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Public Health C. Martin Montañés will have the collaboration of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Hammersmith Hospital in London and the Universities of Cantabria and Lisbon.

Another objective of this research will be that the vaccine obtained has multiple effects, that is, it is also effective against other diseases (tetanus, polio or pertussis). Basic research is intended to be carried out in 3 years and later experimentation of other vaccines is expected.

The EVD has granted an aid of 140 million pesetas (7 million pounds) to carry out genetic manipulations of the so-called “mycobacteria simegmatis”. This bacterium is similar to the “tuberculosis mycobacteria” that produces tuberculosis and allows rapid laboratory experiments. These manipulations aim to achieve a non-aggressive strain that can be used as a vaccine and is more effective than BCG.