The Epidemic Of Tuberculosis, Kenya, Uganda And The Democratic Republic Of The Congo

Tuberculosis is a deadly disease that is now affecting our world and the people living in it in a horrible way. Due to many factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and lack of health care, many third world and developing countries have been left very vulnerable to tuberculosis. It is affecting a large part of these countries and is leading them deeper into poverty and sickness. The effort to help these countries against tuberculosis has only been slightly effective against this widespread and destructive disease.

Tuberculosis is a disease of an infectious nature caused by a bacterium known as mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease spreads through the air. People with the disease can spread it to susceptible people through coughing, sneezing, talking or spitting. It mainly affects the lungs and other parts such as the lymph nodes and kidneys can also be affected. The symptoms for TB are fatigue, coughing, night sweats, weight loss and fever. One third of the population of the world is affected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. The rate of infection is estimated to be one person per second. About 14 million people in the world are infected with active tuberculosis. Drug resistant TB has been recorded to be a serious public health hazard in many countries. Resistant strains have developed making it difficult to treat the disease. TB has caused millions of death mainly in people living with HIV/AIDS ADDIN EN.CITE Ginsberg19981447(Ginsberg, 1998)1447144717Ginsberg, Ann M.The Tuberculosis Epidemic: Scientific Challenges and OpportunitiesPublic Health Reports (1974-)Public Health Reports (1974-)128-13611321998Association of Schools of Public Health00333549http://www.jstor.org/stable/4598234( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_3" o "Ginsberg, 1998 #1447" Ginsberg, 1998). The World Health Organization came up with the DOTS (Directly Observed, Therapy, Short course) strategy. The approach involves diagnosing cases and treating patients with drugs for about 6-8

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious killer worldwide. However, over 95% of TB deaths occur in developing countries (WHO). TB is found to be a curable disease when appropriate medications and treatment are taken. Using the biomedical system is not sufficient to eradicate TB because medical interventions will fail if social determinates aren’t taken into considerations. The biomedical system is a key component in diminishing TB because it allows for diagnosis and control. Social determinants of health play a huge role in shaping one’s health. Three main social determinants that acts as a barrier in curing and preventing TB are income, food insecurity and access to health care.

The social aspect looks at how TB affects the overall impact of health related quality of life. The global section looks at the barriers of governmental funds and treatment access in different developed versus developing countries. The environmental section explores the environmental conditions in where TB impacts socioeconomic factors, including income, education, housing, age, gender, and geographic distribution. The policy section explores the policy around the treatment of TB, providing distributions of policies (funding, allocative health policies and regulated health policies) and organized policymaking processes at the federal level that allow for the improvement of the health of the population.

In 1990s, a policy was engineered in New York and the high prevalence of TB (similar to London) was managed and controlled. In 2004, the Department of Health launched a report adopting those action plans, aiming to bring TB under control, based on the following ten points, (Davies, P. (2005))

TB rates and incidences have remained high, with an estimated rate of 9,000,000 new cases of TB worldwide and 1.7 million deaths per year. The incidence rate of TB in Japan is high with 21 cases per 100,000 people in 2010 than many other developed countries, yet the treatments are being provided by a health care provider. (Shimamura et al, 2013). The nation of Brazil occupies the 22nd place in the ranking of the 22 countries with the highest incidence of TB (Ministerio et al 2012). Tuberculosis treatment is very expensive. Direct costs for treatment (including drugs, diagnostics, case management, hospitalization, etc.) of MDR TB averaged $150,000 per case (in 2014 dollars), compared with $17,000 to treat drug-susceptible TB (CDC 2015).

In the United States, local and state health departments are usually in charge of TB prevention and control as they are in charge of protecting the community health. However, health care department needs to collaborate with hospitals, policy makers, HIV clinics, and correctional facilities in order to report and treat new cases and treat them promptly (Rubin, 2014). Moreover, the health department needs to work in collaboration with these agencies in order to enforce treatment for those with active tuberculosis. The first step to an effective TB prevention program is identifying and treating people with active TB. This means tracking people with active TB and ensuring that they complete treatment. The second step is to screen people who may have come in contact with a person with active TB. The third step is to screen high risk population. To achieve all these goals, local and state health departments should collaborate with health care providers from several communities and organizations (Nardell & Churchyard, 2011).

“Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. In 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from the disease. The number of TB deaths is unacceptably large given that most are preventable,” (WHO). However, even though numbers of those infected are high, the rate of new TB cases is on the decline at roughly 2% per year. The slow decline rate is due to many things including people not being informed about the disease, and improper usage of medicines leading to drug resistant strains of TB.

Tuberculosis is one of the leading infectious diseases around the world. Globally, infectious diseases like tuberculosis among others continue to be one of the leading causes of death in children, adolescents and of the leading causes in adults (WHO). The purpose of this article is to examine and discuss mostly the etiology of tuberculosis, as well as its cause and spread. To better understand the subject of tuberculosis as an infectious disease and the problem it poses throughout the world, the following questions would be answered: What are the factors important in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases? How do sufferers and non-sufferers view tuberculosis? What is the impact of

World Health Organization estimated one-third of the world’s population is suffering with this disease at present even though there is vaccine widely available, there is still a high morbidity rate in some countries every year. Africa, Western and Southeast Asia are the most affected areas, making approximately 86 percent of tuberculosis cases in the world. This research paper will discuss, tuberculosis in New Zealand. It will discuss the biology of the bacterium, risks factors and the importance of immunisation and prevention.

Poverty is closely linked to the spread of TB. Impoverished individuals lack access to proper

To control the tuberculosis epidemic, the first step is to implement the DOTS strategy. This strategy is central to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) policy for tuberculosis control. (21)

There were 8.6million people suffering from TB in the world, where 1.1million were people living with HIV. In 2012 TB accounted for 1.3million deaths where 50% of patients who died were HIV positive women. TB is the top killer of women of reproductive age (Organisation, 2014). Global statistics showed 45% decrease in TB mortality since 1990. The world is likely to reach the MDG target of 50% by 2015 (Ravinglione M, 2006). The report paints a good picture about TB management in the world whereas the reality is that more people are reported to have died of TB when the disease is curable. The number of people diagnosed with MDR in the world doubled between 2011& 2012 with the introduction

Although Africa and other developing nations lead in the number of those infected with tuberculosis, the infected population in the world is currently estimated to be at around one third of the

India, the second most populous country with over 1.31 billion people, has the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, accounting for 20% of the global incidence of TB, and an even higher share of global incidence of multi–drug resistant (MDR) TB. With an estimated 2 million new cases of TB and 5, 00,000 TB-related deaths in India annually, those who got diagnosed with different forms of DR-TB were 35,385 cases but only 20,753 people started on multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) treatment in 2013. The National Tuberculosis Program was launched in 1962, but suffered heavily continuing TB led mortality. Acknowledging this reality, a Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was launched by the Government of India in 1997, however even today it does not comply with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.