You by now have heard the story of the irresponsible individual with terrible resistant tb who traveled around the globe by jet airplane perhaps infecting others. Just what is this resistant tb disease and why is it so dangerous.
First of all this problem of spread of Tuberculosis by people who are infectious with tb is not a new phenomenon. It has happened before. Only now it is becoming more frequent and common with both the rise and spread of new hard to treat resistant forms of tb and the reemergence of tb which is associated with aids.
TB is a deadly disease caused by a bacterium that the body just cannot seem to get rid of. The body tries and tries to get rid of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Bacteria by the immune system again and again more and more but it cannot. In the process the potent chemicals of the immune system destroy parts of the body. It as if strong drain cleaner is being poured on your floor again and again. Only in this case it is parts of your body – usually your lungs. Any part of the body can be affected as well as the lungs – bones, joints, circulatory system evens the skin.
As with most diseases Tuberculosis (TB) originated with man’s involvement with the domestication of animals. Influenza came from our involvement with fowl such as ducks and chickens; TB comes from man’s involvement with cattle.
Remarkably one third (1/3) of the world’s population has tuberculosis. Most of these people are no threat to anyone at all. TB has become much more common. TB had been said not long ago to be “cured” and there was even great effort to close major tb major tb centers as the National Jewish Hospital in Denver (where the world TB traveler was eventually relegated and treated). TB was rare and just about unknown. Then came the aids epidemic. Aids and tb seem to go hand in hand.
With the aids epidemic came multi drug resistant tb. What that means is that the drugs that used to treat and eradicate the tb became less and less effective and in many cases cannot even touch the tb. Whether this is because of the bug changing, the fact that many of the aids patients in the us were intravenous drug users or whatever no one knows.
The basic problem is that although 90 % of Tuberculosis patients don’t spread the disease and are no problem is not the issue. It is the remaining 10 % who are active carriers of the disease are. One tenth of those infected by TB will die if left untreated. And now a greater and greater percentage of Tuberculosis can not be cured by the old standby drugs. Tuberculosis was a difficult disease for both the doctor and patient to treat – lots of different pills that not only cured the Tuberculosis but also had lot of side effects. As well it took a long time period of the multi antibiotic therapy. It was not just a simple 10 day treatment and all was over.
That person who is actively spreading tb can infect 10 to 15 other people a year. How can you prevent the spread of TB to yourself? First of all avoidance of the person who has active tb. TB is generally spread by the aerosol droplets sneezed or spit by the carrier person. Secondly make sure any utensils – plates, knives forks etc that you use are carefully sterilized. A hot dishwasher will do that.
This all brings us back to the question of the individual who involved with the 2007 Tuberculosis scare. Here was a person with known Tuberculosis who around the globe
Spreading infectious Tuberculosis to countless innocent and unknowing people around the globe. Was he reckless and inconsiderate of the health and welfare of others? You be the judge.
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