The Epidemic Of Tuberculosis ( Tb )

Tuberculosis has long been a disease that the human culture has been dealing with which entails significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. With dealing with such a horrific disease over the years, discoveries and evolution on the appropriate ways to contain, diagnose, and challengingly treat the disease has changed. One of the most concerning complications of this worldwide public health issue is the ability for it to quickly spread in high populated areas while becoming ever more resistant to forms of treatment not available in all locations around the world. This is a serious public

Tuberculosis has been a persistent threat to the human race as far back as Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 BC). Globally, tuberculosis has infected millions during waves, often killing scores of people at a time, and then receding giving it an almost supernatural quality (Daniel, 2006). In recent history tuberculosis has been recorded in all corners of the world, and currently infects one third of the global population. In 2012, TB was responsible for killing 1.3 million people, making it the second largest fatal disease next to AIDS. The purpose of this paper is to describe tuberculosis, explain contributing factors, describe the disease in relation to the epidemiologic triangle, and finally

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that affects one third of the world's population. The most infected areas are developing counties or third worlds countries such as Africa, India, Pakistan, and East Timor.

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.

Tuberculosis, the white plague as used to be called once upon a time is still one of the deadliest bacterial killers affecting almost all parts, all corners of the globe. Though successful anti-tubercular antibiotic regimens and effective vaccine are available for decades and being used in the battle against Koch’s bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of this chronic multi organ granulomatous disease, our strand in the battle continuously seems to be in the losing side. Moreover the increasing prevalence of HIV-AIDS and diabetes mellitus is being proved to be providing predisposition to tuberculosis. As witnessed by the WHO, which has estimated that, in the year 2012, 8.6 million people have developed tuberculosis and 1.3 million have died of the disease including 320000 deaths of HIV-TB co-infected people (Global tuberculosis report 2013. World Health Organization; 2013). Long term antibiotic therapy and that too associated with several side effects and discomforts have diminished patient compliance with the anti-tubercular chemotherapy. This fact in turn has raised the new deadlier MDR-TB and XDR-TB strains. The whole scenario is a matter of panic and questioning the effectiveness of anti-tubercular antibiotics, immunologic efficacy of century old BCG vaccine and all other medical advents.

without fear of deportation, he exhorted, "You can come out of the shadows. But they can’t, while the U.S. is experiencing the expansion of health care access with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This plan excluded about eleven million people who are in the country illegally. Nations with a lower social economic status are being greatly affected by the TB agent and do not have the resources available to people in the United States. According to World Health Organization (WHO): TB is the second greatest killer due to a single infectious agent in other nations, in 2012, 15% of the reported cases of TB resulted in death. TB is the third-leading cause of death for women ages 15-44 in low- and middle-income nations and the hardest hit by this disease are patients with compromised immune systems and elderly patients.

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.

It is very important to know that TB can be treated and cured by taking the required medication that could last for around 6 to 9 months depending in the dosages. It is very important as recommended for all types of medication to make sure it is taking properly and is finished to avoid getting sick all over again. Selected studies were evaluated for their objective(s), design, geographical and institutional setting, and generalizability. Studies reporting health outcomes were categorized as primarily addressing efficacy or effectiveness of the intervention (Cobbelens, 2012). Tuberculosis can be cured and the social elements have always been an important issue on who will get the disease and who will be able to receive help to become cured. This disease will remain a worldwide issue for many individuals. Medication is continuing to treat as well as cure the advances of this disease and technology and medication has changed over the years, that it has become a way of shortening the amount of therapy that is needed. Perhaps in the future individuals will commit resources, plan and implement interventions that are needed to help reduce the deaths that are caused by TB. References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009). The Centers for Law The Public Health. Retrieved from HYPERLINK http//www.cdc.gov/tb/programs/TBLawPolicyHandbook.pdf http//www.cdc.gov/tb/programs/TBLawPolicyHandbook.pdf Cobbelens, F.

Despite the accessibility of inexpensive and successful treatment, tuberculosis still accounts for millions of cases of active disease and deaths worldwide. The disease unreasonably has an effect on the neediest persons in both high-income and developing countries. However, recent improvements in diagnostics, drugs, vaccines and enhanced implementation of present interventions have increased the outlooks for enhanced clinical care and global tuberculosis restriction.

Nations which have poor control of the AIDS epidemic also often have poor control of TB, effectively creating a ‘perfect storm’ of the prevalence of both diseases (Wells et al 2007). Individuals with AIDS are more susceptible to contracting TB and an environment where TB is prevalent can worsen the prognosis for individuals with TB. Developing world nations also have poor sanitation, longer wait times to see doctors due to problems of healthcare access, and other barriers which inhibit the needed speedy treatment of the disorder which can result in ineffective treatment and worsening of

Tuberculosis (TB) is the disease of the lung caused by a slow-growing intracellular pathogen called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) (1). In 2014, there were 9.6 million cases of active TB disease worldwide, and 1.2 million TB-related deaths according to World Health Organization (WHO) (2). The burden of the disease can be appreciated with the knowledge that one third of the world population is latently infected with M.tb, and 5-10% of exposed individuals develop active disease and are able to spread the infection to more people every year (3,1). To reduce this burden, effective strategies are required in both preventative and therapeutic areas of research.

As this disease is most prevalent in developing countries, losing money is hugely impactful on society. The living conditions in these places are very poor, helping TB to spread faster and without having the opportunity to spend this money on cleaner water and sustainable living for its inhabitants, it leads to a global pandemic. Treatment for TB is not only costly, but also very lengthy and leads to people pulling out of the workforce for long amounts of time. This is expected in the next ten years, to cost the world’s poorest countries up to $3 trillion and is responsible for a production decrease of about 4-7% in some countries’ GDP. Tuberculosis is very threatening to society today, as treatment is very expensive for people living in these

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.

As mentioned in previous section, high TB notification rate in Hong Kong every year reveals the severity, reported statistics from CHP (CHP, 2016). Though there are decreasing TB notification cases, TB still put pressure on Hong Kong’s citizens. In 1939, around 4,500 TB deaths report before the invasion by Japan, which made TB become a notifiable disease (DH, 2006). During the World War II, the unstable social conditions, poor nutrition, and serious overcrowding in Hong Kong increased the number of cases who died from TB (DH, 2006). As a result, with the influx of refugee from Mainland China, TB became the top killer in Hong Kong (DH, 2006). In 1940-1950, the Hong Kong Government and the Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis Association created plans for TB control services after the development in anti-TB drugs and provided services for TB patients (DH, 2006). TB notification rate and death rate of Hong Kong reached its peak in 1951-1952 when prevention and treatment of TB was not yet commonly use (CHP, 2016). Afterwards, the usage of streptomycin and the BCG injection to newborn babies and schoolchildren decreased the number of notification rate and death rate (DH, 2006). However, some TB patients had difficulties to complete the anti-TB treatment. Therefore, Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) was considered. The death rate of TB dropped dynamically to less than 1,500 cases after the usage of DOT in 1970 (WHO, 2016). After 21st century, the new cases of TB dropped to less than 5,000