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What is tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis is caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis most often affects the lungs. But it can affect other parts of the body such as lymph nodes, bones, joints, brain, abdomen and skin. When people with pulmonary tuberculosis cough, sneeze or spit, the germs of TB are propelled into the air. A person needs to inspire only a few of these germs to become infected, although it may show no signs of TB – this condition is called latent TB infection. People with ITL can not pbad the disease on to other people. A person with LTBI has a lifetime risk of having TB between 5 and 15% during his lifetime. It usually occurs within 2 years, the majority falling ill during the 1st year. However, people with compromised immune systems, such as people living with HIV, malnutrition or diabetes, smokers, children under 5, and people over 60 are at higher risk. to contract tuberculosis.
The common signs and symptoms of pulmonary TB are cough, fever, night sweats or weight loss, fatigue and loss of appetite for more than 2 weeks. The symptoms may seem trivial, delaying the search for care. Delays in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease allow TB to spread to others. A person with active TB can infect 10 to 15 people through close contacts in one year. Without rapid diagnosis or appropriate treatment, people can die of the disease.
Tuberculosis can be diagnosed by a rapid molecular diagnostic method such as the GeneXpert test, or by direct smear microscopy or by the growth of germs in a laboratory culture medium. The first two diagnostic methods give a result within 24 to 48 hours, which allows the treatment to start quickly. When the diagnosis can not be established by laboratory methods, chest X-ray or other diagnostic imaging tests (eg, CT / MRI), especially for extra-pulmonary tuberculosis or histopathological test , or a tuberculin skin test can be used as an adjunctive test for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. by the judgment of the treating physicians.
Tuberculosis can be treated with anti-tuberculosis drugs, usually 6 months for pulmonary tuberculosis and 9-12 months for some serious forms of tuberculosis outside the lungs (eg infections of the brain, bones). For multidrug-resistant TB, treatment is more difficult and the duration varies from 9 months to 20 months, depending on the drug resistance profile of each patient. Latent TB infection may be treated with a more recent regimen for 3 months or with a conventional isoniazid regimen for 6 to 9 months.
What is the global political commitment to fight TB?
At the 67th World Health Assembly held in 2014, world leaders pledged to end tuberculosis by 2035 by reaching less than 100 TB cases per one million people. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to reduce the number of new active TB cases by at least 5% per year by intensifying efforts to search for and treat tuberculosis cases and by improving the treatment of LTBI, alleviating other risk factors, such as diabetes control and diabetes. smoking and adequate infection control in health facilities. In 2017, the rate has decreased by only 2% worldwide. To accelerate efforts to reach the goal of ending TB by 2035, the heads of state made new commitments at the first-ever United Nations high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis in September 2018.
How can we end tuberculosis in Myanmar?
Myanmar is one of the 30 countries in the world most affected by tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis with about 0.2 million new TB cases and 8700 MDR-TB cases each year.
Myanmar's National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) is actively fighting the spread of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment services are free at public health facilities. However, the responsibility for ending TB by 2035 does not rest solely with the NTP or the Ministry of Health, because TB is not just a health problem, it is also linked to socio- economic. Therefore, a concerted effort by multi-sectoral government and non-government agencies, including civil society organizations, community groups and individual citizens is needed. Only then can we achieve the goal of ending tuberculosis by 2035. As a citizen, we can contribute to the fight against tuberculosis by taking simple measures, such as adopting practice of covering one's nose and mouth when coughing, health care to diagnose and treating tuberculosis when we develop signs and symptoms of TB, to take LTBI treatment after close contact with the disease and do not discriminate against those affected by the disease.
Dr. Sein Sein Thi, Counselor on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, "Innovations in Tuberculosis and Strengthening the Health System" FHI360, Philippines
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