Try Not TB Scared

Let’s talk about a disease that is both curable and preventable, but is still a pandemic illness. That disease is tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Just recently, in 2017, a UNC student tested positive for tuberculosis! Wow that hits a little to close to home. Similar to many of the scary diseases we have previously talked about, tuberculosis can be contracted from the air, both directly and indirectly. It causes a terrible cough that lasts for three or more weeks, and sometimes contains blood, chest pain, fever and loss of appetite. Sounds fun!

The World Health Organization released a recent article that explains all there is to know about tuberculosis today, how it is spread, difficulties with it, how to keep from getting it, and more. The first startling fact I feel is necessary to share is that tuberculosis is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. So this thing is a killing machine! It can also be found all over the world, though most cases occur in developing countries. Contrary to many other diseases discussed, the population most at risk are adults. However, other factors are being immunocompromised, malnutrition, and alcohol abuse. A scary aspect of TB is there are some multi-drug resistant strains that have started popping up, including one strain that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin. So as with all other bacterial infections, if you get TB, TAKE YOUR ANTIBIOTICS CORRECTLY!

The Texas Health and Human Services recently released an article showing statistics of this disease, which I find to be very interesting. One of figure shows a bar graph with risk factors associated with contracting TB. It shows that 61.14% of cases in Texas are from individuals born outside of the US. This is due to the ability of TB to remain latent in the body. Those who come from an area where tuberculosis is prevalent, can have the bacteria in them but not display symptoms nor be contagious. If this bacteria because active, however, proper treatment is required to stop the spread of it. Though this study only shows Texas, I think it can be pretty applicable to the rest of the US.