ECDC On Air, the podcast of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Keeping up to date with European Epidemiology.

Hello, welcome and thanks for tuning in to ECDC on air, the podcast for the European Center

for Disease Prevention and Control.

I'm your host Lee, recording from my headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

On today's episode, we're going to be doing something a little bit different.

We will be hearing from Rob Van Hest, a public health tuberculosis control physician

who works at a clinic in the Netherlands with asylum seekers and urban risk groups.

The 24th of March is World TB Day and Rob will be talking about capture recapture analysis

in order to measure the impact of TB, its spread and control and how to combat underreporting.

Before we hear from Rob, we would like to give a little background about tuberculosis and why the recognition of World TB day is so important. The day is recognized on the 24th of March, the date when, in 1882,

Robert Koch announced the discovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB, and thus

began the first steps towards diagnosing and curing the disease. We recognize the day with the hope to raise awareness of the devastating health, social, and

economic consequences of the disease and to step up efforts to end this global epidemic.

Historically known as consumption, TB can affect roughly 10 million people a year.

The disease attacks the lungs, but can also cause problems for other parts of the body.

While most infections show no symptoms, roughly 10% of cases do show signs of the disease,

and it can kill about half of those afflicted if left untreated.

This recording was made before the COVID-19 pandemic began,

when Rob kindly gave his time to present his research to which a link will be provided in the notes.

We hope it provides a valuable insight

into the work being done to control tuberculosis. My name is Rob van Hest.

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