The White Plague of Tuberculosis

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 is most of the feared and widespread that has harassed humans. Tuberculosis is a disease that affects the lungs and other organs too. This is a very serious disease that can cause death and the worse part is that this disease travels to one person to another. In the book, Know about Tuberculosis, a boy who has tuberculosis sneezed on another boy named Kevin who did not automatically catch tuberculosis, but the terms have taken root. According to the book, Know about Tuberculosis, “In the United States, about ten to fifteen million people are infected with this disease, but only ten percent of people are infected; however doctors assume that the battle against tuberculosis is increasing around the world.” Tuberculosis is among the major concerns for the World Health Organization due to its contagious nature.

While tuberculosis was never completely eliminated, there was a significant drop in cases and death rates, as a result of the BCG vaccine and new anti-tubercular drugs in the 1950’s.

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.

Once believed to be easily treated and prevented, Tuberculosis (TB) has recently been making a steady comeback. Previous to modern medicine, TB claimed millions of victims, spreading from person to person like wildfire. Around the 17th-18th centuries, the “White Plague” took the lives of 1 in 5 adults (20%) in Europe and North America (Iseman, 1994). However, as technological advances progressed, this seemingly ferocious viral disease became a primal, insignificant thing of the past. But, in the nature of all bacteria, TB has, in the recent years, mutated to become progressively drug resistant. Why is Tuberculosis coming back with a vengeance? Well, the answer’s quite simple. TB has done an amazing job of standing in the corner and

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis (TB) is the number two killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent (WHO, 2017). In 2015, 10.4 million new cases have been identified and 1.8 million people have died from this disease (WHO, 2017). TB is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium TB, and the majority of TB deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. This disease is curable and preventable, but the lack of access to proper healthcare and medication administration makes it a concern for the most of the world’s population. TB is an airborne disease that can transmit when an infected person coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs, or talks. The majority of TB cases can be cured when the right medications are available and

Originally known as consumption and/or phthisis pulmonaris, evidence of TB has existed in the form of ancient writings from ancient Egypt. Furthermore, the organism causing tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) has existed for approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years. Despite the origins of tuberculosis dating back for ages, tuberculosis did not fully reach a critical epidemic status until the 18th and 19th centuries, when nearly one-tenth of the population died as a result of many factors, “Poorly ventilated and overcrowded housing, primitive sanitation, malnutrition and other factors led to the rise [of tuberculosis]” (Mandal 1). Ultimately, the horrendous atmosphere of Victorian England completely influenced the inevitable impact of tuberculosis as it led to significant symptoms and then the unhurried discovery of tuberculosis treatment. As a result, the view towards tuberculosis in the Victorian Era fundamentally changed. Meanwhile, tuberculosis emerged and did not spare anyone as famous English citizens including Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Frederic Chopin all succumbed to the deadly disease.

Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), also known as TB, is a disease spread by respiratory inhalation of droplets that contain the bacteria. Tuberculosis is an ancient disease that has been traced back at least 9000 years. In 1882, Dr. Robert Koch was the first physician to describe Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the germ responsible for tuberculosis. However, treatment that was evidenced based was not put into practice until the 20th century. It is estimated that 2 billion people around the world are infected with the TB bacteria. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of these infected people will actual develop active TB and experience the life-threatening symptoms of the disease. Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a disease cause by a bacterium that spreads when a person infected with the virus, sneezes, coughs, or even talks and the germs make it into the air for another person to breathe. This bacterium primarily affects the lungs and prevents the proper functioning of the respiratory system. Tuberculosis continues to be a problem in the United States and the problem is even bigger in developing countries such as India where they have seen the growth of MDR-TB cases. The following annotated bibliographies include a variety of peer review journals, a CDC website and the RX for survival video, which addresses the burden of tuberculosis in different parts of the world. The bibliographies also look at the risk factors, prevalence, mortality,

Tuberculosis is one of the major causes of death from many infectious diseases (3). Out of 9 million people who are infected with mycobacteria, about 2 million deaths occur from tuberculosis every year (3). Unfortunately, the prevalence of tuberculosis is in a continuous increase due to increased number of Human immunodeificnecy virus (HIV) patients, bacterial resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs, and growing number of recreational drug users (3). The pathogen responsible for bacterial infection, potentially causing tuberculosis, is mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (2). Persons with adequate immune system can control the bacterial infection so mycobacteria remain dormant for a long time (11). In a typical tuberculous granuloma, mature

In an era where we consider the improvement of technology as the key to overcoming most a finding of diseases. Tuberculosis disease has been in existence for years; the ancient plague of tuberculosis continues to spread throughout population and countries. Beyond any other infectious disease. “In 2013, 9 million people around the world became sick with TB disease. There were around 1.5 million TB-related deaths worldwide (Kim, Shakow, Castro, Vande, & Farmer, 2015).” With all the technology improvement and drugs we still struggle to manage this deadly disease. Between 18th and19th century tuberculosis spread and reaches its maximal growth in urban and industrial environment of the united states and Europe. During that time in the Western

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest recorded human diseases known to man, and is still the deadliest killers among bacterial infections (Smith). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), TB is believed to have killed more people worldwide than all the wars and famines combined. TB once viewed as a death sentence in the past, is now a preventable and treatable disease. However, even though this is now a preventable and treatable disease TB continues to kill millions each year. Since the first anti-TB drugs were used to fight TB 60 years ago some TB bacteria have developed resistance to these drugs

“Despite all the ghastliness in the world, human beings are made for goodness, the ones that held in high regard are not militarily powerful nor economically prosperous. They have a commitment to try and make the world a better place” (Desmond Tutu,15)- Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Strong words of hope and faith in humanity come from a man who is regarded in the same heights as Ghandi. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a survivor of the deadly disease known as, Tuberculosis. According to the CDC, “One third of the world’s population is infected with TB” . A staggering number, but the amount of deaths from TB is even more astonishing, “1.8 million deaths in 2015” (Center for Disease Control). Most people get confused with what exactly tuberculosis even is, whether people say it’s like the flu or bronchitis, but it’s something truly life threatening. Tuberculosis is not exclusive to only one race, ethnicity, or gender, tuberculosis is able to kill anyone regardless of age. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness and educate all the people in the world of the Tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is among the fatal diseases that are spread through the air. It’s contagious, meaning that it spreads from one infected individual to another, and at times it spreads very fast. In addition to being contagious, the disease is an opportunist infection as it takes advantage of those with weak defense mechanism, and especially the ones with terminal diseases like HIV and AIDS. Tuberculosis is therefore among the major concerns for the World Health Organization due to its contagious nature (World Health Organization 1).

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.