Human bacteria cause most tuberculosis cases in humans
In light of ongoing discussions regarding the risks of consuming unpasteurized milk and its relation to tuberculosis, health and food safety experts agree on the necessity of placing these matters within their scientific context and avoiding exaggerations that may mislead public opinion about the true causes of this disease and its modes of transmission.
Abdelghani Azy, director of food products control at the National Office for Food Safety (“ONSSA”), clarifies that there are two types of bacteria that cause tuberculosis: the first, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is responsible for the majority of tuberculosis cases in humans and spreads through respiratory droplets from person to person; the second, Mycobacterium bovis, is associated with bovine tuberculosis but accounts for a very small percentage of human infections.
Azy cites World Health Organization statistics indicating that more than 95% of tuberculosis cases in humans are caused by human bacteria, meaning that the disease is fundamentally a human disease transmitted from one person to another, rather than from animals or through animal products as is sometimes believed.
Regarding food safety, the spokesperson affirms that the office conducts ongoing, daily monitoring of meats in national slaughterhouses, alongside periodic inspections of licensed milk production and processing units to ensure compliance with health standards and guarantee the safety of products available for consumption.
For his part, Tayeb Hamdi, a physician and researcher in health policies and systems, emphasizes that “exaggerating the role of milk as a primary source of tuberculosis transmission is scientific misinformation.” He states, “95% of tuberculosis cases in humans are transmitted from person to person; only 5% come from animals, meaning that among every 20 tuberculosis cases worldwide, 19 are due to human infection and only one originates from animals.”
Hamdi further explains that “unpasteurized milk is not the only means of transmitting tuberculosis from animals to humans; there are other pathways such as consuming poorly cooked meats or animal organs, or direct contact with sick animals.”
However, according to this researcher, the most dangerous aspect is “linking tuberculosis solely to milk; this resembles a tree that obscures two forests: the first is the neglect that humans are the primary source of infection, and the second is forgetting the many other diseases that unprocessed milk can transmit, such as diarrhea, food poisoning, and some fatal diseases.”
From here, the speaker calls for a focus on preventing the transmission of infection between humans through the diagnosis and treatment of infected cases, while at the same time stressing the importance of boiling milk, pasteurizing it, and ensuring its transport and storage under appropriate sanitary conditions to protect public health from various diseases, not just tuberculosis.
Experts agree that the real risk lies in human transmission of tuberculosis, not in milk consumption, and effective protection begins with scientific awareness, strict monitoring, and healthy behaviors.
