Epidemiology of Tuberculosis During the Period 1703–2011: Honoring the World Tuberculosis Day

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest, the most expanded and the most lethal diseases in human history. Although Koch’s discovery of the TB causative agent (1882) represented a great progress in the fight against this infectious disease, it took a significant amount of time to reduce morbidity and mortality in the world. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) it was necessary to implement actions in the form of education where the popularization of measures of recognition, treatment and preventing the disease was done. After the Annexation of B&H to Austro-Hungarian (1908) began an organized fight against TB. Dr. S. Kukric was a particularly prominent individual, putting his effort by working in clinics, through his lectures and numerous popular research papers on tuberculosis. He was followed by many colleagues working inexhaustibly while facing the high incidence of TB and the difficult social situation in B&H. Although this disease is old, at the end of the 20th century a new TB appeared, with new challenges and new, even grater problems. Significant achievement and great progress in the treatment and control of TB infection was achieved by implementing the direct observed short course treatment (DOTS from 2006.) Still, there is a too high incidence of TB that becomes again a serious threat, together with new problems and difficult economic and social situation. Nowadays in Federation of B&H the guidelines of World Health Organization on reinforcing the DOTS strategy are being daily implemented, including multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB and infection control.