March 24 is celebrated each year as World Tuberculosis Day and this year the slogan is “I am stopping TB.” World TB day serves to raise awareness about the global epidemic of TB, which is found in many countries including Anguilla. In 2006 an estimated 1.5 million people died from TB in the world.

What is TB?
Tuberculosis is an airborne contagious disease that is preventable and curable. The organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes TB. Like the common cold, it spreads through the air. Only people who are ill with the disease and have the infective organism in their lungs can infect others when they cough, talk, spit or sneeze. If TB disease is detected early and fully treated, people with the disease quickly become non-infectious and eventually cured.

Left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect on average 10 to 15 people each year. People infected with TB bacilli will not necessarily become sick with the disease. The body’s immune system “walls off” the TB bacilli which, protected by a thick waxy coat, can lie dormant for years. When someone’s immune system is weakened, the chances of becoming sick greatly increase.

How common is TB?
Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second, and overall one third of the world’s population is currently infected with the TB bacillus. Only 5-10% of people who are infected with the TB bacilli (but who are not infected with HIV) become sick or infectious at some time during their life. People with HIV and TB infection are much more likely to be sick with TB.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the largest number of new TB cases occur in the South-East Asia Region and the sub-Saharan Africa.
What are some of the symptoms of TB?
Symptoms of TB include the following:
• A bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer
• Weight loss
• Coughing up blood or mucus
• Weakness or fatigue
• Fever and chills
• Night sweats

If you think you might have symptoms of TB you should see your health care professional for advice.

Is there a vaccine against TB?
In countries where TB is very common a vaccine is available for the prevention of TB. Bacille Calmette Guérin, also known as BCG, is a vaccine given throughout many parts of the world. It is derived from an atypical mycobacterium but offers some protection from developing active tuberculosis, especially in infants and children. When BCG has been administered, future PPD and Tine skin tests remain positive and can cause some confusion when trying to diagnose TB. It is also important to realize that even with a BCG vaccine in childhood, tuberculosis can still occur in an adult exposed to the tuberculosis bacteria.

Diagnosis
The diagnosis of TB is based on isolating the causative bacilli from sputum of the infected individual. Dr Robert Koch first isolated the TB bacillus on March 24 1882. (World TB Day) Other tests like X-rays may assist in making the diagnosis. A positive skin test does not confirm the diagnosis of TB.

Treatment
Despite the fact that TB is a curable disease many people continue to die from this disease. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), HIV-associated TB, and weak health systems are major challenges facing public health experts in controlling TB. The World Health Organization is working to drastically reduce the burden of TB, and halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015, through it Stop TB strategy and supporting the Global Plan to Stop TB.

Conclusion
Tuberculosis or TB is a disease that has affected mankind for a number of years. Despite the fact that it is a curable disease it still causes many deaths in many countries. World TB Day is a time to bring awareness to this disease and focus on ways to eliminate this disease from the world.

Ask Your Doctor is a health education column and is not a substitute for medical advice from your physician. Dr. Brett Hodge is an obstetrician/gynaecologist and family doctor who has over twenty years in clinical practice. Dr. Hodge has a medial practice in the Johnson Building in The Valley.

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