GenomeWebinars

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality due to an infectious agent, with nearly 10 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths worldwide in 2019. Type 2 diabetes is a risk factor for the development of active TB. The global increase in type 2 diabetes, with 642 million cases predicted worldwide by 2040, poses a challenge for TB control. The elderly are an understudied and vulnerable population with a high prevalence of diabetes and are highly susceptible to TB, with 20 to 30 percent dying from the disease.

In this webinar, Blanca I. Restrepo will describe the epidemiological landscape of TB and diabetes, with contrasting observations between adults and the elderly. Most notably, the elderly have a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes, yet this is not associated with higher odds of TB in this population. Also, Restrepo and colleagues find that elderly vaccinated with the BCG vaccine at birth appear to be more protected from developing TB. These provocative findings require further testing in other cohorts. Finally, Restrepo will discuss the challenges for latent TB infection testing in the elderly and the performance of the QuantiFERON-Gold Plus TB test.