I am diagnosed with Tuberculosis

Kindly permit me a space in your widely respected weekly health column to request for information about Tuberculosis. I am diagnosed with the disease and now on daily drugs. Angela V.   Thanks Angela for your question. Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. The disease is curable […]

Kindly permit me a space in your widely respected weekly health column to request for information about Tuberculosis. I am diagnosed with the disease and now on daily drugs.

Angela V.

 

Thanks Angela for your question. Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. The disease is curable and preventable. It spreads from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air.

 A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected. About one-quarter of the world’s population has latent TB, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with the disease and cannot transmit the disease.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), people infected with TB bacteria have a 5-15% lifetime risk of falling ill with it. However, persons with compromised immune systems, such as people living with HIV, malnutrition or diabetes, or people who use tobacco, have a much higher risk of falling ill.

When a person develops active TB disease, the symptoms (such as cough, fever, night sweats, or weight loss) may be mild for many months. This can lead to delays in seeking care, and results in transmission of the bacteria to others. 

The people at risk?

• Tuberculosis mostly affects adults in their most productive years. However, all age groups are at risk.

• People who are infected with HIV are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop active TB (see TB and HIV section below). The risk of active TB is also greater in persons suffering from other conditions that impair the immune system.

• One million children (0–14 years of age) fell ill with TB, and 250,000 children (including children with HIV associated TB) died from the disease in 2016.

• Tobacco use greatly increases the risk of TB disease and death. 8% of TB cases worldwide are attributable to smoking.

What are the symptoms and diagnosis?

Common symptoms of active lung TB are cough with sputum and blood at times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. 

Many countries still rely on a long-used method called sputum smear microscopy to diagnose TB. Trained laboratory technicians look at sputum samples under a microscope to see if TB bacteria are present. Microscopy detects only half the number of TB cases and cannot detect drug-resistance.

What are the treatment options?

TB is a treatable and curable disease. Active, drug-susceptible TB disease is treated with a standard six-month course of four antimicrobial drugs that are provided with information, supervision and support to the patient by a health worker or trained volunteer. 

Without such support, treatment adherence can be difficult and the disease can spread. The vast majority of TB cases can be cured when medicines are provided and taken properly.

What is the relationship between TB and HIV?

• People living with HIV are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop active TB disease than people without HIV.

• HIV and TB form a lethal combination, each speeding the other’s progress. 

• WHO recommends a 12-component approach of collaborative TB-HIV activities, including actions for prevention and treatment of infection of the disease, to reduce deaths.

What is Multidrug-resistant TB?

•Anti-TB medicines have been used for decades and strains that are resistant to one or more of the medicines have been documented in every country surveyed. Drug resistance emerges when anti-TB medicines are used inappropriately, through incorrect prescription by health care providers, poor quality drugs, and patients stopping treatment prematurely.

• Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful, first-line anti-TB drugs. MDR-TB is treatable and curable by using second-line drugs. However, second-line treatment options are limited and require extensive chemotherapy (up to 2 years of treatment) with medicines that are expensive and toxic.