It is one of the top 10 causes of deaths worldwide and the world's deadliest infectious disease in
The past 200 years it has killed more than 1 billion people more than malaria
HIV and AIDS
influenza cholera and the plague combined in ancient Greece
It was called 'the isis tabbies in ancient rome and scotch up earth in ancient. Hebrew
It was also called the white plague and the captain of all these men of death before being given its official name
tuberculosis or TB for short
Numbers are less drastic than they used to be but still 10 million people in
2017 fell ill with it and 1.6 million people died from it including
230,000 children that is over 4,000 humans every day
TB still exists and drug resistance is a continued threat
So what is it? How does it work? And what is being done to combat the disease?
Two billion people or one quarter of the population of the world has TB in latent form
this means they have been infected with it, but are not ill with a disease and cannot transmit it a
Person infected with TB has a five to fifteen percent chance of it turning active and getting ill with it in their lifetime
People have a much higher risk of getting ill if they have a compromised immune system those with malnutrition
Diabetes or HIV for example children pregnant women and the elderly also are at a higher risk
So what is it TB is a disease caused by the bacteria
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
This bacterium primarily infects the lungs but it can also spread to other organs a
Person with active TB in their lungs can spread germs through the air when they cough sneeze or spit
Just a few germs are enough to infect a person
if you inhaled the bacteria by another person it travels down to the lungs where it will begin to multiply your
Body's defense system will engage engulf and transport the bacteria to lymph nodes and try to kill or neutralize the bacteria
Most healthy people will kill the bacteria
And have no symptoms afterwards if your defense system can't kill the bacteria, but contains it
This is when it is classed as latent if the bacteria
Overwhelmed the defense in the lungs and it is not contained. This will then be classed as active and you will become ill
Even in the latent state the bacteria are dormant and can activate and spread in months or even years later
Having a low immune system as mentioned before heightens the risk
This is especially true in young children who do not have a fully developed immune system for people with HIV
Typical symptoms of someone infected are a persistent cough lasting more than three weeks blood when coughing a high temperature
night sweats weight loss loss of appetite
Swelling in the neck
If you or anyone, you know coughs up blood or has any of these symptoms for three weeks or more
You should see a doctor as soon as possible
There are areas known as the thirty high burden areas where it is
most common eighty seven percent of new cases in 2017 occurred in these countries and
Two-thirds of these were from eight countries alone
These are India China Indonesia the Philippines Pakistan Nigeria Bangladesh and South Africa
Overall 95 percent of cases and deaths are in developing countries
The vast majority of TB cases can be cured when medicines are available and administered properly
Infants in countries with high infection rates are often given the bacillus Calmette gain vaccine or BCG
But generally because of underfunding many infants are not and many adults go undiagnosed with TB until it is too late
without proper treatment
45% of people if you get TB will die and nearly all of those who are hiv-positive will die
Smoking also significantly increases the risk of getting infected and dying from it
8% of cases worldwide are connected to smoking
When diagnosed the standard course of treatment is six months of four antimicrobial drugs, which is normally enough to cure the patient fully
From 2000 to 2017 an estimated 54 million humans were diagnosed treated and saved from TB
drug-resistant strains of TB are rising and in
2017 approximately five hundred and fifty-eight thousand new cases with resistance to rifampicin the most effective first line drug
85% of people resistant to this drug were also resistant to the common alternatives
There are limited resources to the second line of treatment which can require two years of chemotherapy and medicines that are expensive
Toxic and not always readily available
Many cases have even more severe resistance to drugs leaving them. No further treatment options at all
It is estimated that
3.5 billion US dollars are needed per year to fill the resource gap for implementing even the existing TB intervention
research is ongoing to find new ways to treat drug-resistant TB and a few promising drugs are starting to emerge but
More research and development is needed
Some companies doing this development can be found in the description
Volunteers are often the frontline in helping and more are needed to diagnose and administer drugs that help save lives all over the world
Awareness is also important the more people know of the symptoms and how to react the higher chance of lives being saved
watching and sharing videos like this following and supporting charities and
Organizations that are on the ground helping humans overcome the deadliest infectious
Disease in the world and also are trying to hold individual countries governments accountable
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