New Delhi: Tuberculosis i.e. TB has spread in many countries across the world. Men are more likely to contract TB and die from it than women, media reports suggest.

In South Africa, the number of men dying from TB is 70 percent more than that of women. In such a situation, it is horrifying to figure out the number of men being diagnosed with this disease.

The disease not only affect the men but his life, work and especially his wife who has to take care of everything in the household. The same woman has to work for earning or they will die of poverty.

South Africa Contributes Alarming Rate Of TB Cases 

Scientists recently conducted research to establish the different factors that explain the high rates of TB among men in South Africa. South Africa is ranked among the top six countries contributing 60 percent of the global burden of TB.

The main finding was that men are 70 percent more likely to develop TB and die from the disease than women. It is estimated that in 2019, 801 per 100,000 adult men developed TB, while the rate among women was 478 per 100,000.

Current TB interventions focus on biomedical approaches, with emphasis on preventive TB medicine, diagnosing TB patients and treating them with anti-TB drugs.

TB poses a risk of HIV

Research shows that men’s access to health facilities needs to be improved and they should be encouraged to seek medical care. HIV is the most important risk factor for TB and the primary driver of the epidemic.

The TB model has been integrated with the existing Thembisa HIV model. About 60 percent of people with active TB are also living with HIV. The model showed that between 1990 and 2019, South African men developed TB and their death rates remained consistently higher than women.

We estimate that there were 1.6 times more new TB cases and 1.7 times more deaths among men than women in 2019.

HIV more common in women

The research results are even more shocking as it shows HIV is more prevalent in women than men. The expectation would then be that the incidence of TB should be higher in women. Other factors contributing to the higher TB epidemic among certain risk men include excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, diabetes and undernutrition.

It is estimated that 801 per 100,000 adult men developed TB in 2019, of which 51 per cent were due to heavy alcohol consumption, 30 per cent to smoking and 16 per cent to undernutrition. The number of women was very less.