Tuberculosis kills 800 people in India every year. By the time you finish reading this article, 2 people would've lost their battle to a preventable and curable disease. Approximately 80% of the Indian population is exposed to the tuberculosis bacilli by the time they turn 20.
As a part of CNN-IBN's efforts to increase awareness about this disease, on World Tuberculosis Day, Dr Sanjeev Mehta, leading Chest Physician with Lilavati Hospital, talks about the complications, risk factors and myths associated with the disease.
Understanding tuberculosis
It is an infection caused by germ 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' and is spread across socio-economic division in India. Though this infection mostly attacks the in lungs but can also affect other parts of the body like the spine, called spinal tuberculosis or Pott's spine. tuberculosis is highly contagious and spreads through air. A single sneeze releases upto 40,000 droplets. Each of these droplets may transmit the disease. 1 in 10 infections eventually progress to active tuberculosis, which, if left untreated , kills more than 50% of those infected....
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11:54 AM, Mar 24, 2012
