NIGHT sweats are often associated with flu, nasty bugs or even the menopause.
But it’s also a common warning sign of a deadly Victorian disease known as tuberculosis (TB).
GettyTB will be the most deadly infectious disease in the world again[/caption]
TB is one of the most infectious killer diseases in human history and has started to surge globally for the first time in 20 years.
The disease is serious and can be fatal if untreated.
The infection mainly affects the lungs but can also have an impact on the tummy, bones, glands and nervous system.
The number of people testing positive for tuberculosis TB rose by 10.6million in 2021 – a 3.6 per cent rise.
Experts have now warned the disease could be overtaking Covid as a threat to the UK.
Professor Robert Wilkinson, who is trying to find a cure for the disease, said it’s “inevitable TB will be the most deadly infectious disease in the world again”.
The NHS stopped offering the BCG vaccine against TB to children in 2005, now only targeting only children who travel to badly-affected countries.
“The proportion of resistant TB is gradually increasing everywhere and that is a problem in Europe too”, the Prof from London’s Francis Crick Institute, told the Mirror.
Until now, cases of the deadly infection have decreased by about two per cent per year for most of the past two decades.
According to a report on TB by the World Health Organization (WHO) the disease killed nearly 1.6 million people in 2021 – making TB the second leading infectious killer after Covid-19.
Many people were unable to get a diagnosis or receive treatment during Covid lockdowns.
To make matters worse, cases of drug-resistant TB also increased by three per cent between 2020 and 2021, the report said.
In July 2022, Brits were urged to be on the lookout for signs of the deadly Victorian disease after an outbreak at a university in Wales.
Three students at a university campus tested positive for the illness – eight months after coming into close contact with someone who died from the disease.
Illnesses such as scarlet fever, measles and mumps have all risen dramatically since Covid began.
Scientists fear a deadly measles outbreak among British children could be imminent.
It comes as vaccination uptake is at a 12-year low, official figures reveal, and cases of the bug surge globally.
The 5 other signs of TB
According to the NHS, the symptoms of TB include:
a persistent cough that lasts more than three weeks and usually brings up phlegm, which may be bloodybreathlessness that gradually gets worselack of appetite and weight lossa high temperatureextreme tiredness or fatigue Read More