Onkológia 2/2019
Latent tuberculosis – risk factors of tuberculosis
Eradication (destruction of pathogenetic organisms) of tuberculosis is one of the most important tasks in the medicine nowadays. Despite of a significant improvement with diagnostic and treatment of tuberculosis, it is still the most deadly infectious disease. According to data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) more than half a million people die from this disease each year. It is estimated that (25-30%) of the world population is infected with causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT). Tuberculosis can be induced by recent transfer of an agent, but it is more common that there is activation of asymptomatic infection caught in the past - latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). LTBI characterise the dynamic equilibrium between virulence of MT and efficiency of individual’s immune response. Even short weakening or disorder of these mechanisms can lead to activation of infection. Slovakia is one of the countries with medium to low incidence of tuberculosis, but a lot more people can be infected with the MT and therefore exposed to risk of activation of this infection. According to World Health Organization the most crucial strategy of reducing tuberculosis is identification and preventive treatment for people with higher risk of activating LTBI. In article we want to warn about biological causes of increased risk of infection activation – biological risk factors of TB. For example Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) caused by Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), oncological diseases and other chronic somatic diseases.
Keywords: tuberculosis, latent tuberculosis infection, biological risk factors of tuberculosis, immunodeficiency
