Tuberculosis Awareness

What will you do if your best friend with whom you sit every day, share your lunch and have a good time tells you that he/she is a T.B patient? You will probably maintain distance from them even if you don’t want to, as it is a communicable disease.

Yes, it is an airborne communicable disease, but discriminating someone on the basis of disease is also not appropriate. If someone is a T.B patient, it is not his or her mistake so, we should show compassion towards them and spread awareness about the disease in the various parts of county.

X-ray of a TB patient Source – WIKI

It is a fatal but treatable disease and in India there are about 14 million cases of T.B with the annual rate of 5 lakh patients, just because of unawareness.

It is important to understand how TB is caused.

It is caused by bacteria called mycobacterium tuberculosis. It usually affects our lungs but can also affect brain, knee and backbone.

There are various myths associated with the disease such as it is a hereditary disease; it occurs in lower socio economic groups and TB patients should be hospitalized. Whereas the truth is that anyone can get infected irrespective of its economic status and patients can continue to work.

“Some people also feel that if a person is TB patient then they should be totally isolated to prevent further infection but if a person is on medication from at least two months isolation is not required”, says Dr. Shashank Srivastava

Symptoms of TB:

• Cough for three weeks or more
• Continuous fever
• Fatigue while working hours
• Loss of weight
• Loss of appetite

Stop TB

How does it spread?

It is an airborne disease so bacteria travels in air and spread through an infected person. According to statistics about 50% people in India have TB germs inside them. A single infected untreated person can spread the disease to 10 individuals.

“TB is a communicable disease true but it doesn’t spread from a normal handshake and it is also a treatable disease so, discriminating someone is not a point”, says Dr.Shashank

Treatment:

Treatment of the disease goes on for 6 to 8 months. An individual suffering from TB should not discontinue his/her treatment in between as this can be really dangerous. If a person again gets infected they may develop drug resistance. Basic medicine which is given for the treatment is R-cinex. All the medicines are available free in the government hospitals.

How we can prevent ourselves from getting infected?

“Having nutritious food, observing basic principle of cleanliness and personal hygiene can make increase resistance hence, less chance of getting infected”, says Dr. Shashank.

Most effective treatment in TB is DOTS that is directly observed short term treatment. And government regularly organizes campaigns to make people aware especially in rural India.

Every year, 24th March is celebrated as Worlds NO TB day.

So, let’s pledge that we will tell others to spread awareness about TB. And if you or someone around you is suffering from the above said symptoms so, without any delay contact the doctor.