Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Are You Aware of Tuberculosis?


This article, which was published on March 24, 2014, pertains to Tuberculosis and how many people are unaware of the disease.  The article states, “In 2012, 220,000 cases were reported, but PAHO/WHO estimates an additional 60,000 people remain undiagnosed, most of them living in cities.”  Sixty thousand is a strikingly large number of people who were estimated to be undiagnosed.  One out of every five people infected with TB in the Americas is unaware of the disease due to the lack of access to health services or because they were not properly diagnosed.  This statistic is a frightening indicator and could be potentially detrimental to the health of civilians in the Americas.

Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.  One out of three people worldwide has latent tuberculosis, which means they are infected but do not have any active symptoms of the disease and cannot transmit it.

            In 2012, the estimated 60,000 people who were believed to have TB have not yet been diagnosed or reported.  This circumstance not only endangers their lives but facilitates further transmission of TB.  It also generates socioeconomic costs for individuals and their communities.  "The diagnosis and treatment of all people affected by TB can only succeed if all health providers, community organizations, partners, and countries join forces to detect and treat these 60,000 people", stated PAHO/WHO Director Carissa F. Etienne.  Everyone across the globe deserves access to high-quality healthcare.  This measure will help reduce the toll of TB and help ensure that all Americans live long, healthy lives.

            High numbers of Tuberculosis cases are most prevalent in large cities – usually in the outskirts, where living conditions lead to overcrowding.  Limited access to clean drinking water and properly functioning sewage systems also play a major role in how the disease is contracted and spread.  With the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), PAHO/WHO is implementing an initiative for control of tuberculosis in the large cities of the region that tries to diagnose cases of TB in a timely manner, so as to speed up the reduction of the disease in the Americas.

 
The Americas have reduced the prevalence of tuberculosis by 61% between 1990 and 2012, and have reduced the TB mortality rate by 68% in the same period.  This is great news!  The progress achieved is largely due to the implementation of the PAHO/WHO "Stop TB" strategy, which is based on timely diagnosis and treatment, universal access to care, and adequate combinations of anti-tuberculosis drugs.  Today in the U.S. TB tests are commonly done. 
 
However, in Latin America and the Caribbean, tuberculosis is still one of the leading causes of death from a single infectious agent, alongside HIV/AIDS.  In addition to undiagnosed cases, other challenges include the spread of multidrug-resistant TB, the emergence of extensively drug-resistant TB, and the increasing frequency of TB and HIV/AIDS co-infection.

This article reminded me of the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.  Dr. Paul Farmer works tremendously hard to treat and diagnose patients with TB in Haiti.  In the book, it explains Farmer’s difficulty with treating patients with multidrug-resistant TB.  In my opinion this article is very sad that so many people are unaware of tuberculosis.  One and five people are a lot more than I expected.  Before reading this article, I wasn’t that clear on the science behind the disease.  It is a relief that the number of TB cases are decreasing and the physicians around the world are getting better at diagnosing it.

 


Original article: “In the Americas, One in Five People with Tuberculosis is Unaware of the Disease” by Staff Editor, published March 24 2014 in Health News Digest. http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Disease_420/In-the-Americas-One-in-Five-People-with-Tuberculosis-is-Unaware-of-the-Disease.shtml

6 comments:

  1. I think you chose a very relevant article to write about. I also saw an obvious connection between the above article and Mountains Beyond Mountains. It is alarming that so many people go undiagnosed or are just frankly ignorant of the disease. Articles like this, books such as Mountains Beyond Mountains, and public health measures will only help raise awareness. Your statistic about how much the disease prevalence has been reduced in the past few decades is significant and encouraging, and hopefully we can continue to make this disease less of a problem.

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  2. This is a really interesting article, and I was also reminded of Dr. Farmer's work with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Peru, especially when the article mentioned that people living in Latin America were suffering particularly badly from TB. I'm really surprised that there are still so many cases of tuberculosis each year in the United States. It's a disease that I mostly associate with earlier centuries and poorer countries. It's good, though, that there's a program in place to help treat TB patients.

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  3. This article has really great information about TB. Like the rest, I immediately thought of Mountains Beyond Mountains and Paul Farmer's quest to stop the disease. I was really surprised about the shear number of people living with the disease and how many of them do not even know it. It's also scary to see how they are mainly in cities, since TB can be spread by close contact, like in cities. While there certainly has been much progress in lowering TB cases, these statistics show that more work needs to be done and hopefully with this work TB can be stopped.

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  4. Like everyone else I also made the connection to Mountains Beyond Mountains. I agree with Steph that it's extremely alarming how people with TB are undiagnosed or are ignorant. I think that this article has really good info about tuberculosis. Prevalence of TB in the Americas has been reduced by 61% which is great and hopefully we can continue to reduce the number in the future.

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  5. I really enjoy that in your article you mentioned some additional information about TB to make it easier to understand. Its alarming how while TB rates are improving in the United States there are still some countries where TB is one of the leading causes of death. Again connecting to mountains beyond mountains its hard to believe that medicine can be so advanced and people can be so well informed in some parts of the world while others are struggling to contain a treatable disease. Hopefully the 60,000 people who are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed don't find out too late once they have transmitted it to someone else. I wonder if you have TB and don't present symptoms whether you can give TB to someone and have them present symptoms.

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  6. I really enjoy that in your article you mentioned some additional information about TB to make it easier to understand. Its alarming how while TB rates are improving in the United States there are still some countries where TB is one of the leading causes of death. Again connecting to mountains beyond mountains its hard to believe that medicine can be so advanced and people can be so well informed in some parts of the world while others are struggling to contain a treatable disease. Hopefully the 60,000 people who are either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed don't find out too late once they have transmitted it to someone else. I wonder if you have TB and don't present symptoms whether you can give TB to someone and have them present symptoms.

    ReplyDelete

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