Fundamentals of Clinical Trials - Research Paper Example

Tuberculosis (TB) is typically caused by a number of mycobacteria strains, especially the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease is widespread and usually fatal. It mainly targets the human lungs. The disease can however other body parts. The main mode of spreading the disease is through the air as tuberculosis patients sneeze, cough, or transmit their respiratory fluids to other people through the air. TB has been found to be a result of immortality. In the year 2009, it caused close to 1.68 million deaths globally. (1) It has been estimated that the world prevalence of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections stands at about 32 per cent.

TB has also considered dangerous in the sense that it remains the second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, specifically after HIV/AIDS. According to Martineau (2012), latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis carries a 5 to 20 per cent lifetime reactivation disease risk. (2) In other words, one in every three people around the world has latent TB. In this case, the infection is contained by the immune system such that, those individuals having the latent TB do not develop or spread the disease.

3 About 10 per cent will progress from latent to active TB but the risk is greater among those with certain risk factors, such as HIV/AIDS and tobacco usage. Those who develop active TB may only portray mild symptoms for several months. During this time, such patients can infect between 10 and 15 people every year. (4) Drug-resistant organisms’ emergence triggered the development of new and better agents for enhancing antimicrobial response as with respect to active TB therapy. (5) Vitamin D was used for the treatment of TB during the pre-antibiotic era.

Studies have gone to the extent of identifying a certain protein that seems to play a major role in the protection of people infected with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacteria, which causes TB, including the development of the active form of TB. Interleukin-32 is said to have been discovered and considered as a biomarker of enough host defence against tuberculosis.