Found between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the spread of tuberculosis in Europe – Lenta.ru

The international team of scientists, including the authors have also from Russia, said that as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union in Europe actively began the spread of multidrug-resistant. On the results of his research group reported in Nature Genetics, and briefly with them can be found at New Scientist.

In contrast to the usual, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis immune to the main drugs used to treat – rifampicin and isoniazid. Scientists have traced the evolution of strains of tuberculosis (mikobakteriyi M. tuberculosis) and came to the conclusion that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an increase in the spread of the disease.

Experts analyzed the biogeography and evolutionary history of the 4987 strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from 99 countries of the world, where isolated 110 representatives encountered in the Far East. These 110 strains spread around the world, and led the last 200 years to the emergence of multidrug-resistant.

The peaks increase in the number of cases of this kind of TB occur in the Industrial Revolution (1820-1840 years), when Europeans and Americans began to live in crowded cities and work in hazardous conditions. The following peaks are associated with the First World War and the spread of HIV (the latter disease, weakening the body, promotes tuberculosis). The incidence has declined 1960s, due to the use of antibiotics.

However, two major strain began to spread in the early 1990s through Russia and Central Asia. This is due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in the medical and sanitary services of the former Soviet republics degraded.

08:00 November 7, 2014

12:59 September 18, 2014

People after the collapse of the Soviet Union had difficulty in access to effective drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis. In addition, conditions of detention in prisons, as well as drug addiction and HIV often led to massive disease in a penal colony and the further spread of infection after their release.

As a result, Eastern Europe and Russia (as well as South Africa and China) have a high incidence of tuberculosis among its citizens. This affects the Western Europe. For example, in London from 2000 to 2012 increased the number of annual detections of multidrug resistance – from 28 to 81 cases.

Unlike regular TB, which is treated with standard antibiotics for six months, people with the disease with multiple drug resistance after treatment get serious complications and side effects, and are isolated from society for a time of six months. At the same time a year since the beginning of the disease, they may occur abnormal liver function, and the likelihood of recovery is less than 50 percent.