The pathogenesis of tuberculosis

Published on November 28, 2021   36 min

A selection of talks on Clinical Practice

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0:00
Welcome, my name is Bill Bishai. I'm a professor at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland. My topic today is the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. I'd like to share a little bit of epidemiology about tuberculosis in the world, then take you through four topics on the pathogenesis of tuberculosis.
0:23
Epidemiologically, tuberculosis is one of the most lethal diseases on the planet. The statistics from 2019 revealed that there were 10 million new cases of tuberculosis globally, and about 200,000 cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. Within these cases, there were 1.4 million deaths. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death in patients with HIV.
0:51
The outline I'd like to address with you today is shown on this slide. First, I'd like to address the forms of human tuberculosis. Second, I'd like to address virulence factors of the microbe, within macrophages. Third, I'd like to address the important topic of the tissue-mediated pathogenesis of M. tuberculosis, specifically addressing how the bacterium leads to the formation of granulomas, which are the classic lesions seen in humans. Lastly, I'd like to discuss the important topic of TB pathogenesis during HIV co-infection.
1:29
The microbe is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It's an obligate aerobic, facultative intracellular bacterium. One-quarter of the world's population is estimated to be latently infected with this microbe. Importantly, M. tuberculosis can persist in humans for decades, before reactivating to cause active post-primary tuberculosis disease. During this persistent phase, it's called latent tuberculosis infection.