The spread of tuberculosis in Africa was blamed on miners
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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The development of the mining industry in African countries is conducive to the spread of tuberculosis. To this conclusion came a group of researchers from the United States and Great Britain under the leadership of David Stuckler (David Stuckler) from Oxford University (Oxford University). A report on their work is published in the American Journal of Public Health. Researchers studied the pace of development of the mining industry in 44 countries of Central and Southern Africa for the period from 2001 to 2005. After that, they compared the findings with the incidence of tuberculosis among residents of these countries. What is tuberculosis? Scientists noted that the risk of contamination of miners with tuberculosis is higher than that of representatives of other professions due to harmful working conditions. Almost half of African miners come to work in countries with developed extraction of precious stones and metals from abroad. As a result, the risk of tuberculosis spreading across the continent is increasing. According to scientists, with an increase in the pace of development of the mining industry in Central and South Africa, up to 760,000 new cases of tuberculosis per year can be connected. The incidence of tuberculosis in African countries has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years. In particular, in the period from 1900 to 2007, this indicator almost doubled from 173 to 351 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year. In 2008, around 1.8 million tuberculosis patients died in the world.