Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease that is non-discriminant because it is airborne and can infect anyone.  It is most prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Russia.  The populations that are usually infected are those who do not have insufficient funds and access to medical care.  Also it is more common that those who are infected live in densely populated areas so it is easily transferable.  Cure and medication is readily available but people do not have the funds to go throughout an entire treatment so the TB that they are already infected with evolves into TB type 2 which is incurable.  There are solutions and prevention that are available but it is very hard to detect because those infected do not even know that they are infected.

14 million people are living with TB

8.7 million people developed TB worldwide in 2011.

13 percent of people diagnosed with TB were living with HIV.

3.2 million people with HIV were screened for TB.

33.3 million people are living with HIV/AIDS.

Less than half of people identified as having TB and HIV started antiretrovirals.

1.4 million people died of TB - 430,000 were HIV-associated TB deaths. (Zaman, 2010) 
Visual representation of one million.

Poverty has circumstantial influences on many billions of lives around our world. The stress levels of the labeled ‘have-nots’ alone are a main concern of western health. Yet in developing countries it is all too common to be coping with a disease such as Tuberculosis, while being turned away from medical centers over and over again. “Those who experience tuberculosis as an ongoing concern are the world’s poor, whose voices have been silenced.” (Farmer, 2009, p.185) They are not silenced by one individual, but by the collective rejection, or disinterest, of the many.

A large aspect of the poor’s TB plight is a lack of access to proper education and care. “One survey in India reported that most (93%) people had heard of TB but only 20.5% of the people demonstrated sufficient knowledge of TB.”(Zaman, 2010) This is all too common in many developing countries, which hold a large portion of impoverished peoples, especially those living in rural areas. It is also important to note that, “poverty may result in poor nutrition which may be associated with alterations in immune function. … [poverty can also create] overcrowded living conditions, poor ventilation, and poor hygiene-habits [which are] likely to increase the risk of transmission of TB.” (Zaman, 2010)

http://maricopa360.com/?p=702

There are certain methods that have proved to be largely successful in the control of TB, such as “directly-observed therapy short course (DOTS) [which] has been a ‘breakthrough’ in the control of tuberculosis.” (Zaman, 2010) This has been largely effective due to the relatively short six-month duration of the drug regimen. The unfortunate fact that this process only works if the patient can stick to their prescribed drug regimen, and secure regular access to medical facilities is necessary to do so.

The solutions to these issues lie largely in the area of infrastructure. For every simple drive to the hospital in the U.S. an entire bus route and/or road needs to be created for those who can’t travel to care by their own means. Furthermore, there must be an increase in the availability of health clinics to those in rural areas. Drug resistant forms of TB have been rapidly emerging. “[N]ot only multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB but also of XDR TB (extreme drug-resistant TB)” (Zaman, 2010) have been occurring largely due to broken drug regimens.

http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/health/diseases/tuberculosis/the-link-between-tuberculosis-and-hiv/

We “need to understand the reasons for misconceptions about TB” to properly “address it through health education”(4 and other preventative methods. This too is a matter of getting health workers out into the field with the purpose of aiding, and maintaining healthy life practices -such as washing hands, HIV awareness- and, general health/sex education. As the statistics in the beginning of this post show, HIV and TB are inextricably linked due to HIV weakening the body’s immune system so the opportunistic TB can take hold of the lungs, or also the brain, intestines, kidneys, or spine.(Zaman, 2010) There is a push from the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure cross testing of those infected with either virus, immediate antiretroviral therapy for those who are afflicted with both HIV and then TB, and infection control in any healthcare setting; yet the effect of this push has not fully been realized.