A revolution in another

The World March of Tuberculosis (TB) is celebrated on March 24th, a disease that is one of the top 10 causes of death in the world. But it is curable.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that accompanies humanity from its origins and continues today. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is among the top 10 causes of death in the world, and even above HIV-AIDS.

On March 24, 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced to the world the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. That is why, in tribute to this event, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed this date as World Tuberculosis Day.

The motto of this year's celebration is Ya Ya hora! *, In reference to the challenges facing the planet in terms of control and eradication. However, our country is happy to show an "enviable rate – by the end of 2018, it was 6.1 per hundred thousand inhabitants – thanks to the Cuban State that guarantees patients the appropriate drugs and treatments".

Dr. Carmen Rosas Valladares, a specialist in pneumotisiology of the second degree and assistant professor at the Pneumological Beneficial Legal Hospital, a national reference institution for respiratory diseases, expressed with great pride the above.

Tuberculosis is a treatable disease, explained Dr. Carmen Rosas Valladares.

Cough and expectoration of more than 14 days, a sign

The specialist – dedicated for more than thirty years to the attention of patients with tuberculosis – pointed out that it was a contagious-contagious disease transmitted from person to person by the gout (called fluyers). laugh and even sing), which contain Koch's bacillus.

Coughing and sputum between 14 and 21 days and fever, usually in the evening and in the evening, are the main symptoms.

There may also be a cavity, a loss of appetite. "As the disease progresses, the onset of symptoms becomes more flourishing."

Given these signs, he said, it is appropriate to go immediately to primary health care, that is to say at the family doctor, where, after the interrogation and the physical examination, morning sputum samples are taken.

The epidemiological aspects are fundamental because there are people, as in the case of smokers, who frequently have cough and sputum.

Inmates, diabetics and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are in the population at risk.

Vital health care

Once the diagnosis is made, the doctor indicates other tests (including that of blood sugar due to the danger that the diabetics run), as well as enzymatic, hepatic and renal studies, since the drugs are metabolized in the two organs, which he is important to know the state. to apply treatment with so-called rifampicin and isoniazid (although other drugs are used) drugs, very expensive, that our country is acquiring in far-off countries bypassing the US blockade.

In Cuba, patients receive a treatment comparable to that of industrialized countries, they are fed and separated from the workplace, and not social, because it is shown that patients can live with their family, while maintaining care, Do not cough not close to others, knowing that TB is transmitted by air.

The disease causes millions of deaths every year on the planet, but in Cuba – after the triumph of the Revolution – measures were taken to monitor and control the epidemic, which led to the results that the country shows today. # 39; hui. where primary health care played a crucial role, with the doctor's program and the family nurse.

He explained that five years ago, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) had revealed that the eradication of this country from the Americas was likely (this factor is taken into account when the rate is less than 5), hence the support received. with audio-visual means, so that Cuban pulmonologists are informed and trained to deal with all situations and improve the indicators achieved until now.

* World TB Day's motto this year is an exclamation that looks like a desperate cry after consecutive years of stagnation in the fight against the infectious disease that kills more and more people around the world each year. Progress is slow, so much so that it would take nearly two centuries to end the current pace, while the goal of the international community is to no longer be an epidemic in 2035.