The article I chose is about tuberculosis and the drugs used
to treat it. It was published on
February 5th 2013. The
full article can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/opinion/
According to the World Health Organization more than eight
million people get sick with tuberculosis every year. In 2011, 1.4 million people died from it; that is the second
deadliest infectious disease after AIDS.
There have been many improvements in the treatment of TB over the years
and the death rate and infection rate is slowly decreasing. Even with these improvements there has
been some scary new research showing that certain distributed drugs could
actually aid the disease in becoming resistant to drugs.
The
failing pills had to little of the ingredient that kills the TB bacteria. The drugs will kill off some of the
bacteria but leave the strongest to multiply. In these cases the patient could then spread drug resistant
TB, which is far more deadly and harder to control. Something that caught my eye was that the drugs were coming
from qualified manufacturers but were poorly made or were ruined in transport. Many people cant travel to clinics that
have medicine from public health departments so they are forced to take their
chances with the medicine they have available.
As
a society, we don’t question medicine often. When we think of medicine we know there is a chance that it
will not help cure us. However, we
associate that with our body rejecting it, not because the medicine we receive
is sub par. Lucky for us, bad TB
drugs are not a problem in the US because we have stronger manufacturing
practices. But there are so
many people in so many countries that don’t have access to great medicine,
which is causing more and more cases of TB to show up. I find this article very interesting,
yet very startling that medicine (something we associate with a cure) could
actually be harmful.
Pictures were used from:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/01/65262/drug-resistant-tb-may-spiral-out.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_the_year_in_photographs_p.html
Pictures were used from:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2009/04/01/65262/drug-resistant-tb-may-spiral-out.html
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_the_year_in_photographs_p.html
I think that this article is very interesting as well. I never knew that the drugs that were used to treat tuberculosis in fact made it stronger. This makes me wonder if other diseases that are similar to tuberculosis could possibly do the same thing. Also it is unfortunate that other countries don't have the same advantages and resources as us so that the people living in these countries have to suffer from poorly made drugs and diseases that these drugs are trying to cure. I feel that in these countries there should be more nonprofit organizations that should be helping out by bringing stronger drugs to treat this disease.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your summary of this article I went to read it myself. This is a very interesting topic that we as US citizens dont usually think about. We never really think that a medicine could potentially harm us even worse than before. I think this is very interesting seeing that we have studied many infectious diseases and the ways people in earlier times handled them. While studying in class when we read about the preventative measures that were taken years ago I wonder what people in the future might think of our generations preventative measures. Clearly distributing faulty medicine is a bad thing which should be heavily monitored and something that will be remembered about our generation. It makes everyone probably second guess what the doctors prescribe us when we have a minor sickness. Luckily though like you said we live in a country that has good medicine facilities. All though other people around the world are not so lucky.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Tiffany and Alex. I think that because we live in a relatively safe place in comparison to the rest of the world, we do not question whether or not our drugs are effective. We are lucky enough to be able to go to drugstores and purchase drugs that are guaranteed to work. Because these products are approved by doctors and made by very smart people in laboratories, we often believe that these drugs are beneficial. To me, it is heartbreaking to know that people in poor countries get their hopes up because they have finally received the medicine they need, only to be let down again by faulty drugs. If there is millions of dollars being paid by worldwide companies to research and come up with ideas for cures, then why wouldn't they put the same amount of money into producing and transporting these drugs effectively? Even though TB isn't a huge problem in America, it makes me question whether or not our drugs are safe and produced as best as possible.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be very interesting. I never knew that more than eight million people get sick with tuberculosis each year! It’s crazy that tuberculosis is the second most deadly disease after AIDS. We always hear about people getting the flu or other commonly known diseases but tuberculosis seems to lurk in the background as the silent killer. I think the scariest part in all of this is that many of the drugs that are used to treat the disease often end up making it stronger. I agree with Alex when he said “ it makes me wonder if other diseases that are similar to tuberculosis could possibly do the same thing.” It’s scary to think that the drugs we depend on to make our symptoms better may ultimately be making us sicker. Here in the US we are fortunate enough to have the best doctors and medicine, but in lower class countries they are living in much less fortunate environments. Their resources and medicine supply are simple sub-par. I wish there was something we could do to help those less fortunate countries. I think everyone deserves a healthy life provided with necessary resources such as medicine.
ReplyDeleteMichela this was a great post! After reading the article I saw many connections to what we have learned this year in class. I knew that TB was a deadly and infectious disease, and that it was becoming resistant to the drugs that we use to treat it. I did not however, know that it was gaining resistance because people are failing to make the medication properly. That is extremely frustrating because I am now aware that simple efforts can be made to prevent the faulty production of these drugs, or bad transportation methods. I find this ironic, because in a way we are giving the bacteria a "vaccine" to the drugs. Just like inoculation and real vaccinations, we are giving a less harmful version of something deadly to these diseases, and their systems are learning how to process it and become immune to it's effects. It is scary to think that these drug resistant strands may be caused by different company's incompetence to make quality drugs.
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting post. I would have never thought that a medicine could be so much more different in another country than in the US for the same disease. It is sad to think that just because some countries have less money and have poor health care that they get faulty medicine. The same medicine should be distributed around the world. Companies should't poorly make a certain medicine just because it is to be shipped abroad to a less fortunate place. This article was very interesting to me, and also made me a little mad. People with TB around the world are taking medicine that they think are making them better but could really just be making them more resistant and even more dangerous. Great choice for your article!
ReplyDeleteFirst, brilliant title.
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that tuberculosis directly caused so many deaths around the world, and it is tragic that so many of these deaths are caused by fake medicine. In the United States alone, medicine is a multi-billion dollar industry, and that value only increases with the rest of the world. While it creates income for criminals who manufacture fake drugs and sell them for a profit, it means that countless suffering victims go without real treatment and die when real drugs could have saved them.
While not part of the article, I found the included map of new MDR-TB cases around the world to also be interesting. While it is understandable that so many cases should occur on Hispaniola, it seems curious that a great number of cases are recorded in the former Soviet Union. It is also interesting that no data has been recorded for several countries; some, such as the chronically dangerous situation in Somalia and the lack of outbreaks in the United States and Australia, seem obvious. However, there is no data for much of sub-Saharan Africa, and I wonder how much TB affects the population in places like Nigeria and the Congo.
It is good that the number of infections and the death rate for tuberculosis is decreasing. It reminds me of the fact that hand sanitizer should be used less because the bacteria is evolving quickly (because one generation for bacteria is so short) to be more resilient against it. It is bad that other countries cannot receive the care needed. It should be of more concern than it is, especially in wealthier countries, because we are the ones who are actually able to help those countries in need (If less people had the disease even less people would become infected). The disease may even evolve to a point where the medicine in the United States is unable to work effectively against tuberculosis (or maybe another disease).
ReplyDelete