Batra Hospital and Medical Research Center, Delhi

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Tuberculosis : new challenges                                                                                                             Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most ancient diseases of mankind   In 1882, Robert Koch discovered bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis It is caused by bacteria termed Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex which includes M tuberculosis, M bovis , M microti and M africanum TB kills 2 million people   per year. According to WHO, half of all new cases are in six asian countries including India . People with co-infection of HIV and TB are much more likely to develop TB. ·          Today in India, two deaths occur every three minutes from TB. Indian scenario TB has been mentioned in the Vedas and   Ayur

Cardiovascular diseases have now become the leading cause of mortality in India. 25 to 30% mortality in our country is attributable to heart attacks, brain strokes and heart failure. The Global Burden of disease in India is estimated at age-standardized death rate of 272 per 100,000 population. It is higher than the global average of 235 per 100000 populations. The other peculiarities in our country are a younger age at presentation, an accelerated course of disease and high mortality. Preventive strategies are therefore the keys to reduce this alarming trend because once it manifests, most treatment strategies are at best palliative. The World Heart federation and World Health Organization every year has marked last Saturday of September as the “World Heart day”. This year the theme of the World Heart Day is to make 3 Promises. “ Eat more healthily”, “ get more active ” and “ say no to Smoking ”. These three do’s can go a long way in preventing a heart attack and keep you he