ON WORLD Tubercolosis Day yesterday, a team of 64 experts announced a new framework to change the previous approach to defining tubercolosis (TB), which they say is limiting progress to eradicate the disease.
Published in the The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the framework aims to replace the approach of the last half century of defining TB as either active (i.e. causing illness and potentially infectious to others) or latent (sufferers are infected with the bacterium, but are well and not contagious).
"One key finding in the consensus is moving the disease threshold and acknowledging that disease does not just start with symptoms or transmission, but when tissue is damaged," said the paper's co-lead author Dr Anna Coussens.
"In time we hope our framework can contribute to TB elimination by leading to improved early diagnosis and treatment, optimising patient outcomes and minimising transmission," she added.
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