Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs. It is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As the disease progresses, it continues to attack your central nervous system, circulatory system, lymphatic system, and other systems. People who suffer from other ailments which attack the immune system (such as HIV victims in African nations) are most likely to be infected. Children also are at great risk in poor countries, with over 64,000 dying in 2011 as a result of TB.
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| Man with HIV who recently contracted TB as a result of his weakened immune system. |
In the past 17 years, efforts have been made around the world to combat TB. 51 million people have been treated in that time period, and over 20 million who would surely have died were saved by medicinal advantages. Dr. Mario Raviglione, the director of the Stop TB department of the WHO, was referring to the treatment of 51 million people with TB when he said
"This milestone reflects the commitment of governments to transform the fight against TB"
While this truly is a great achievement, Dr. Raviglione views the new MDR-TB strains as a looming epidemic in multiple nations. He warns us "we are now at a crossroads- either we eliminate tuberculosis in our lifetime, or the disease evolves, becomes more and more resistant and harder to treat, and many millions more than expected will die."
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| Countries with highest # of TB cases |
I personally think that much more funding should be put into the prevention of TB. In 2011, $4,400,000,000 less than usual was put into TB funding. This marks a turning point towards a possible future breakout. Less funding worldwide is being committed to research and prevention as new strains of TB are evolving.
This reminds me of our classes unit on the Boston smallpox epidemic of 1721. It relates because similar to the Boston selectmen before the mass outbreak, the WHO and other organizations are wary of the devastation that a MDR-TB pandemic could cause. However, as with the smallpox epidemic, no matter what measures we take prior, the disease has the capacity to spread like wildfire. The MDR-TB will be unhindered by our useless current drugs.
We must develop new innovative vaccines and medicine. This way, we will take the TB virus from a new angle that it has not evolved to predict.
John, this article was great. Its scary to think that their just brushing TB off in a way now. Lowering the funding for its research may make a gateway for itself to come through again. I like how you related it to small pox which is true, I think people are not so aware of the damage this can cause and how fast it can spread. Small pox wasn't something we could prepare to get in a way, once we got it it spread.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to think that the diseases are still evolving esoecially, about them evolving to fight how we have been fighting them. I agree with Dr. Raviglioneon how we need to elimate tuberculosis soon, because if we do not then tuberculosis will just continue to evolve. If we use more new treatments wouldn't the tuberculosis just evolve again to resist it, and we would have to devolop an new way of fighting it again.
ReplyDeleteI think that was a great article to share and comment about. I was surprised with how TB is still very prevalent in today's society, as I had thought that it was not a major concern anymore. This is why I was so surprised that 64,000 died of TB just last year. I agree that more funding would help these outbreaks occur less often and create less worry for the future. I also thought of how this related to the small pox epidemic and how long it took to eradicate that disease. If we want to prevents TB from killing millions more, we must be active in creating a change. We need war heroes to emerge and continue fighting for the eradication of TB.
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