Panic spreads as Maine residents are infected with world’s deadliest disease

The fears are expressed in Maine after three people in the state have been tested positive for the deadliest disease in the world.

The patients were diagnosed with active tuberculosis and there was no link between them, which suggests that everyone was infected with a different source.

They are in the Grand Portland region, officials said, and work is underway to identify and isolate their close contacts.

He arrived in the middle of an increase in cases in the United States, with America reporting 10,347 infections in 2024, the last year available, up eight percent compared to the previous year and the highest tacon since 2011, while there were 10,471 cases recorded.

But officials said the risk of the public in the latest infections was low.

The World Health Organization considers that tuberculosis is the deadliest disease in the world because it kills the most people from all diseases, which costs around 1.25 million lives each year, mainly in developing countries.

The disease has a high death rate, killing up to half of the patients if they are not treated or not vaccinated. It is well above the mortality rate for COVID, less than one percent, measles, 10% for unsolved patients and legionnaire disease, also about 10%.

Tuberculosis was indeed a death sentence in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was no healing, although it could now be avoided by vaccines and treated with antibiotics.

The officials said that the three patients with active tuberculosis, which means that bacteria are increasing in their lungs, were in the Grand Portland region (illustrated above is a portland file photo, Maine)

Tuberculosis killed more than 16,000 people in the United States each year in the 1950s, but deaths have now dropped around 550 people a year.

Most cases of tuberculosis in the United States are imported or due to migration in the country, says the CDC, most patients from the outside of American borders.

More details on the cases of Maine, including their names, ages and exact locations, have not been revealed.

The state CDC revealed the infections on Tuesday and advised residents is aware of symptoms such as a persistent cough which does not relax in the three weeks.

Infections were described as active, suggesting that bacteria multiplied in patients’ lungs, but when they started, it was not clear.

But they added that the risk of the general public was low.

Dr. Dora Anne Mills, responsible for improving health for Mainehealth, warned that tuberculosis could only be transmitted if someone was in close and prolonged “ `with an infectious person.

She told Portland Press Herald: “The vast majority of people do not have to worry about it.

Patient names and ages have not been revealed. The above shows a pulmonary radiography of a person with tuberculosis

Tuberculosis infections are increasing in the United States, and the country has now reached its highest count since 2011

“It does not propagate by occasional contact like shaking hands or sharing a towel. It is much less contagious than the flu or the cocvid.

He can take days to the disease to infect a healthy person who lives in the same home as a patient.

Online reports have suggested that cases were linked to a refuge for asylum seekers in the region, but the officials said there was no evidence that it was.

Managers say that cases are not yet an epidemic, which is defined as more cases than expected in a specific location or population.

Maine has already reported 28 cases of tuberculosis so far this year, according to figures, just 11 cases below 39 recorded in 2024.

26 cases were reported in 2023. It was not clear if it would be a record year.

Children, the elderly and those who have a lower immune system are more vulnerable to an infection.

In the early stages, symptoms of the disease include persistent and unexplained cough and sometimes coughs blood or thoracic pain.

Patients can also suffer from unexplained weight loss, loss of appetite, fever and night sweats.

At the later stage, patients can have serious breathing difficulties, extensive pulmonary damage and infection can spread to other organs such as liver or back, causing pain in these areas.

Patients die from the disease due to respiratory failure, or when damage to the lungs mean that they can no longer obtain enough oxygen in the body.

Doctors can treat disease with antibiotics and can vaccinate against the disease using a plan called BCG vaccine.

It is not systematically offered in the United States, because the disease is not common, but can be requested for children, and leaves a small circular scar on the arm, a normal response and the sign that the vaccine was effective.

It can also be given to adults, but it is less effective in this group and can lead to someone wrongly positive for the disease.

In developing countries, the vaccine is administered to children under the age of 16.