Tuberculosis cases increase in Buenos Aires: how to avoid it?

Before the new cases registered in La Plata and in the Courts of Comodoro Py, the alarm signal was triggered.

After it was known a new tuberculosis case of a boy of twelve years old in a primary school in La Plata and that was added to the other six diagnosed in the judges of the courts of Comodoro Py , the alarm is triggered. Are we facing a possible epidemic of the disease? "The cases in Argentina have not increased, but there are more epidemiological complaints," she explained in a conversation with Crónica Griselda Berberian (MN 75.782), head of the clinic. Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Service of Garrahan Hospital. "We have 90 patients every twelve months, the number has not changed in the last 15 years," he added, referring to the number of children attending the hospital.

"Tuberculosis is a very common disease in our country and it is transmitted through the air when the person who suffers, coughs, sneezes or speaks," he said. "To be infected, you have to be close to infected people for a long time, not in a collective, for example."

To rebadure himself, Berberian warned that the disease was being treated and that it was effective. "In Argentina, it's totally free, we work from the social service," he said.

The importance of BCG

Nevertheless, adherence to the national immunization schedule is essential to prevent the spread of severe cases of disease. "The vaccine we have is one, the BGC, which generates an immunological response and generally prevents 50% of tuberculosis.What it does, is prevent the severe forms of the disease." can be administered to people who have a weak defense or a newborn under 2 kg, "he said.

Now the situation is different when it is about 39, avoid contagion rather than prevention. "The important thing is not only to treat the infected person, but to study the contacts, because it is useless to treat a person with tuberculosis if everyone around him is not being treated, "he said.

and as for the 12-year-old boy who contracted the disease, he stays in hospital and continues his treatment at the hospital. Sor Maria Ludovica pediatric hospital in La Plata, the medical center has indicated that its evolution is favorable, while at the school, it s uit -Primaria n ° 33- his colleagues and the teachers who were in contact with him were the Mantoux reaction, a skin test that detects whether or not the person was in contact with the bacteria that causes the disease.

Up to 2018, 1,320 cases have been reported in the province of Buenos Aires, although this does not mean that there is an epidemic. 19659003] Source: Chronicle