Tuberculosis in China

doi:10.4236/jtr.2013.12002

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Vol.1, No.2, 9-9 (2013) Journal of Tubercu losis Research

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jtr.2013.12002

Tuberculosis in China

Tian Hu, Wenjie Sun*

School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA;

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Received 24 June 2013; revised 25 August 2013; accepted 2 September 2013

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Tuberculosis (TB) has been and is still an important

public health issue in China. According to the most re-

cent report from the World Health Organization, China

had an estimation of 1.4 million existing TB and 1 million

incident TB in 2011 [1]. Among the new cases, approxi-

mately 1.2% combined the existing HIV infection [1].

Since TB is directly related to people’s health status and

work capability, therefore, the control of TB prevalence

has been of priority both in the public health and in the

economic development of China.

The progress in controlling TB in China is, however,

currently influenced by the following two major factors.

First, the migration and health system compounds the

prevention from TB. It is known that eighty percent of

TB exists in rural areas, particularly in north and north-

western regions with low socioeconomic status in China.

In the past three decades, there has been an increasing

number of people from these areas that immigrated to the

large urban cities; and they could potentially result in the

spread of the disease in cities if they were TB-carriers.

The urban living style and working conditions promote

the transmission of TB in the big cities via crowded con-

ditions and airborne pollution. However, the subsidized

management of TB is only available through facilities in

the birth place of immigrants and it is sometimes difficult

for them to get screened, diagnosed and treated in the big

cities.

Also, multidrug resistant (MDR) TB has been another

pressing public health issue in China. MDR TBs are

spread from individual to individual in the same manner

as regular TB, but are usually resistant to at least isoni-

azid and rifampicin, the two most powerful first-line an-

ti-TB medications. Since most TB therapy consists of

short-course chemotherapy, the treatment could only cure

a small proportion of MDR TBs and the treatment using

second-line TB medications is usually very expensive.

Therefore, MDR TBs have brought about difficulty in the

treatment, especially in developing countries such as

China. With an increasing number of patients not being

treated, TB would be problematic, and the epidemic of

TB would be revived. In 2013, the prevalence of MDR

TB in mainland China was 5.3% to 27.4% [2].

Despite these challenges, Chinese government has

successfully addressed TB problem in the past few dec-

ades, and has great contribution to global TB prevention.

Also, Centers for Disease Control in China together with

other institutes conducts many preventive interventions

of TB funded by The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tu-

berculosis, and Malaria program initiated by the World

Health Organization. Chinese health professionals be-

lieve that they could fulfill the world-wide goal towards

eliminati on of t uberculosis by 2050 [3] .

REFERENCES

[1] WHO (2012) Global Tuberculosis Report 2012, WHO.

[2] Yang, Y., Li, X.W., Zhou, F., Jin, Q. and Gao, L. (2011)

Prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis in mainland

China: Systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS One, 6,

e20343. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020343

[3] Jassal, M.S. and Bishai, W.R. (2010) Epidemiology and

challenges to the elimination of global tuberculosis. Cli-

nical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the

Infectious Diseases Society of America, 50, S156-S164.