by Rene V. Carbayas

ISABELA CITY, Basilan — Tuberculosis or TB remains to be a health threat in Basilan and urged the public to be aware of the disease, according to local health authorities here.

In separate radio interview over DXNO-FM Radyo Komunidad radio station in Isabela City, both representatives of the Department of Health (DOH-Rep) and the Provincial Health Office (PHO) agree that TB detection cases in the province is high and to some degree alarming.

PHO’s National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) provincial coordinator Cathy V. Mutamad reveals that based on its 2011 NTP Annual Accomplishment Report, Basilan has a case detection rate (CDR) of 67.2 percent and a cure rate (CR) of 57.2 percent.

“many of our constituents are not very much aware of the disease and could not really appreciate what this disease is. that is why we are doing our best to increase this awareness among our people, especially in the rural areas,” Mutamad said.

She said that health departments here are intensifying its information campaign in the communities through case detection surveys and community pulung-pulong. She added that discussion like this in radio programs could heighten the awareness level of the people.

Oliver Divinigracia of DOH-Rep said that in spite of existing treatment for TB, it still remains to be one of the top five diseases in Basilan.

“everyone is vulnerable,” he said, since the disease is highly contagious, especially in the absence of first treatment, as the bacteria could survive in the air for quite some time.

Marida Perez, Infectious Disease Cluster Head Nurse provincial coordinator explained that tuberculosis is a disease caused by tubercle bacilli that most commonly affects the lungs in more than 80 percent of the clients. It is known as Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB). She said that people can be infected when living or in close contact with a patient who has an active PTB.

She added there is another type of tuberculosis that affects the lymph nodes, bones, joints, genito-urinary tract, meninges, intestines, and other parts of the body other than the lungs and it is considered as Extra-Pulmonary Tuberculosis (EP).

DOH-Rep MedTech Musa Abubakar, meanwhile has appealed to the public for cooperation. he urged the public to help the local health personnel in detecting cases of TB by reporting or submitting themselves for case detection.

Speaking in Yakan dialect, Abubakar urged people with symptoms of the disease, chronic cough for example, to visit community health centers as health personnel are trained to handle such cases.

“Ang TB ay nagagamot, kaya hindi dapat katakutan (TB is curable and one should not be afraid of it.),” Abubakar stressed, saying that negative attitude towards people with TB are still persistent in the communities. “because people do not understand the disease,” he added.

However, health officials bank on the role of the community and the family members of TB patients in battling with the disease. “Having a cure is not enough. the care and concern of the community and the dedication of family members is our key to successfully stop the spread of the disease and eventually eradicate them,” Mutamad said.

With March 24 being World Tuberculosis Day, doctors have pointed out that there are a growing number of cases of Tuberculosis Spondylitis or TB of the spine, also known as Pott’s disease. it is a cause for concern, considering the disastrous and often irreversible complications that it can have. India accounts for one-third of the 30 million TB patients the world over.

?Nearly 2 lakh people from India suffer from Tuberculosis Spondylitis. The symptoms for spinal tuberculosis are localized back pain, painful movements, fever, a hump in the back, excessive weight loss, and in worst cases, weakness of hands or legs. The Mycobacterium Tuberculosis invades the vertebral body causing an inflammatory reaction and then later progressing to destruction of bones of the spine. Sometimes, there can be a visible appearance of a deformity of the back.? Dr Rajesh Parasnis (Consultant Spine Surgeon, Oyster and Pearl Hospital, said on Wednesday.

In neglected cases, patients may develop angular deformity due to the destruction of vertebral bodies called as kyphosis. Persons suffering from persistent back pain, fever and loss of appetite should alert the doctor without delay.

Inadequate treatment can aggravate the issue by creating drug resistant bacteria, which may be difficult to treat in the long-run.

?Primary care physicians should also be cognizant of the issue and must refer these cases for specialist treatment. Early detection and prolonged treatment with appropriate drugs as per national guidelines will work wonders,? he added.

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TB scare shuts down Kingston police custody suite

3:15pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in

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a tuberculosis scare forced the closure of Kingston police custody desk last night.

Suspects were diverted to stations in Wimbledon and Richmond as the custody desk shut for an hour to be scrubbed down when a health check revealed a suspect was carrying the potentially killer disease.

it is unknown at this moment whether police officers have been screened for the disease since the discovery.

Tuberculosis, known as TB, is a passed on through coughs or sneezes with symptoms including a persistent cough, weight loss and blood in phlegm or spit.

People suffering two or three of these symptoms for more than three weeks are advised to go to their doctor.

The disease can be treated with a six-month course of antibiotics.

Britain is now the only western European country with rising rates of tuberculosis with more than 9,000 cases now diagnosed annually, according to research carried out in 2010.

four in 10 cases are diagnosed within London, with cases rising by nearly 50 per cent in the last 12 years, from 2,309 to 3,450.

Children in the borough were screened for tuberculosis in March 2010, when a new Malden school pupil was struck down with the disease.

More Kingston stories

Health warning : Oxford is worst hit in county

10:00am Saturday 14th January 2012 in Oxford By Amanda Williams

THE number of people with the potentially fatal tuberculosis is on the rise in Oxfordshire, new figures have revealed.

And people in Oxford city are more likely to get the disease, which reached epidemic proportions in Victorian England, than anywhere else in the county.

In 1991 Oxfordshire recorded about just 25 to 30 cases of tuberculosis (TB).

Last year that had risen to 61, up from 55 cases the previous year.

TB is a bacterial infection which mainly affects the lungs.

Nationally, there are 14 cases of TB per 100,000 of the population.

In Oxford city, the incidence rate is more than 21 per 100,000.

it is spread through inhaling droplets of saliva from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person.

Health chiefs have attributed the rise over the past 20 years to the increase of non-immunised immigrants coming from Asian and African countries where the disease is far more common, and settling in parts of Oxford and Banbury.

According to the county’s public health report, over the past four years the number of cases has been highest in Oxford City and Cherwell District Council.

but county health chief Jonathan McWilliam played the rise in cases down and said: “The county average rate for new cases is consistently lower than the UK rate.

“This is a good achievement.”

TB was the biggest killer in the UK in the 19th century when about one in four deaths were from TB, or consumption as it was then known.

Thanks to a concerted immunisation programme, the number of cases nationally dropped to just 5,500 in 1987. however, last year there were 9,040 infections across the country.

The Health Protection Agency said the disease is mainly occurring among overseas immigrants, from places such as West Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia and China.

NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s primary care trust, said it had a comprehensive service for TB patients which was based at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

an NHS Oxfordshire spokesman said: “The incidence rate of TB in Oxfordshire is 9.5 per 100,000 of the population.

“This is consistently lower than the UK rate which is 13.6.

“Patients are assessed by TB consultants and supported by a team of community TB nurses. Treatment lasts approximately six months.

“This service has succeeded in achieving a high completion rate of 94.5 per cent which is well above the national standard of 85 per cent.”

what is tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling droplets of saliva from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person.

TB mainly affects the lungs. however, the infection can spread to many parts of the body, including the bones and nervous system.

Symptoms include a persistent cough, blood in sputum, weight loss and night sweats. it can kill if left untreated with antibiotics.

Lead study investigator and Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialist Petros Karakousis, M.D., says the new animal model should hasten development of a badly needed, early diagnostic test for the condition.  Symptoms of ocular TB — vision loss, and redness and pain in the eye — are often indistinguishable from symptoms of other chronic infections and inflammatory conditions, including toxoplasmosis and sarcoidosis, which can often lead to selecting the wrong therapy. 

“TB infection can be active in the eyes even in the absence of lung symptoms,” says Karakousis, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “So, there are usually long delays in diagnosis, and by this time, it’s too late for tens of thousands of people who are already going blind due to permanent inflammatory damage to the inner lining of the eyes.”

The scenario, he noted, is especially true in the United States and Europe, where TB is far less common than in developing countries, where most of the 9 million new infections occur each year.  Most new cases in the United States occur in people whose immune systems are already depressed from co-infection with HIV and who lack access to antibiotic treatments.  Some 20 percent of people with the potentially deadly lung infection, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, develop inflammation in other organs, including in the inner tissue linings of the eye or linings surrounding the brain.

The Johns Hopkins team’s description of the animal model for ocular TB appeared in the Public Library of Science One online last week.

Karakousis says a clear and rapid test for ocular TB would not only prevent treatment delays, but also reduce the rate of misdiagnosis.  Suspected inflammatory disease, such as sarcoidosis and lupus in the eye, are treated with steroids, which can promote bacterial spread across other body organs, making the infection worse. 

Current diagnostic methods for ocular TB involve a lot of guesswork, says Karakousis.  Underlying signs of active TB in the lungs, such as positive chest X-rays and sputum samples, are helpful in making a diagnosis but often not present.  Tissue biopsy of the affected part of the eye offers more reliable confirmation of infection, but the procedure involves painful needle extraction that carries the risk of permanent eye damage, even blindness.  Physicians are often deciding to treat based on a high suspicion of TB infection, and then taking a “wait and see” approach for several weeks or months to determine if people are getting well or not.

Karakousis and his team used small, aerosolized doses of about 200 bacteria to infect each animal’s lungs, a procedure closely replicating human TB infection, which is spread when uninfected people inhale small numbers of the organisms coughed up by people already infected. Karakousis says all previous animal models for studying TB infection, in mice and in rabbits, used more than 10 times larger doses of injected tubercle organisms to eventually infect the eyes, which is not really how the disease spreads to the eyes. 

Microscopic testing of eye tissue samples showed all guinea pigs were infected with TB after two months, and that the disease spread through the bloodstream, as it does in humans.

Moreover, small, grainy nodules, a telltale sign of active TB infection, were observed in both the lungs and in the inner choroid tissue layer lining the eyes.  Some choroidal tissue death and thickening, as well as bleeding from blood vessels, were also seen — all known indicators of active TB infection in humans.

Further tissue analysis of lung and eye granulomas revealed increased production of vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, a signaling protein linked to irregular blood vessel formation and known to play a role in other vascular-related vision problems, such as blindness due to diabetes and age-related macular degeneration.

Karakousis says ophthalmologists have already had some success with VEGF antibody treatments, used in combination with standard antibiotics, to treat TB infection in the eyes and the lungs. He adds that anti-VEGF drugs could represent new therapies for ocular-TB-related disease and that VEGF levels in the eye could signal active TB infection in the eye.  the Johns Hopkins team next plans to test VEGF and other protein levels in eye fluid as possible diagnostic test markers for ocular TB.

“having a verifiable diagnostic test for ocular TB is key to picking up on active infections early and providing treatment that stands the best chance of preventing long-term damage, with our without any signs or symptoms of lung infection,” says Karakousis.  “until then, physicians will have to be aware to test for ocular TB, especially in regions like Africa and Southeast Asia where the disease remains endemic, and to listen for clues in the patient’s life history that might alert them to earlier possible TB exposure.”

TB is the leading cause of death among people co-infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and is responsible for an estimated 2 million deaths annually, including a half-million in those infected with both organisms.

Provided by Johns Hopkins University (news : web)

Grisha Balasanyan16:23, November 24, 2011

Lilit should be entering the fifth grade but she’s been left back.

Her medical condition is such that the young girl hardly attends class. Lilit is given to long coughing bouts.

The girl doesn’t seem to mind that much given that she won’t be surrounded by the same classmates that used to make fun of her.

At first, parents and even some teachers thought Lilit suffered from tuberculosis. Recently, physicians have diagnosed something more alarming – cystic fibrosis (mucoviscidosis).

It’s a recessive multi-system genetic disease characterized by abnormal transport of chloride and sodium across epithelium, leading to thick, viscous secretions in the lungs, pancreas, liver, and intestine.

The hallmark symptoms of cystic fibrosis are salty tasting skin poor growth and poor weight gain despite a normal food intake, accumulation of thick, sticky mucus, frequent chest infections and coughing or shortness of breath.

For the past three years Lilit has spent most of her days in hospital under the car of doctors.

Lilit’s aunt, Narineh Sargsyan, says the illness is incurable and that now they are simply trying to prolong the girl’s life expectancy.

When we visited Lilit, one of her coughing spells acted up. Family members were afraid because there was a lot of mucous coming up and the girl was having trouble breathing.

When doctors diagnosed CF and they registered Lilit as “disabled”, they advised the family to purchase a special piece of medical equipment. Medicine would be filled into the unit and Lilit would breathe it in. It’s the only way to bring the girl back to a conscious state in a short time.

But Narineh says the unit must be special ordered and that it costs 60,000 AMD ($170). the family was despondent since they couldn’t afford the life-saving unit but a kindhearted nurse, Satik Arturovna, gave the unit to the family free of charge. she realized that the child couldn’t get by without it.

Lilit uses the unit to breath 2-3 times daily and takes a regimen of medicines and nutritional supplements.

Lilit is starting to lose weight – a bad sign.

A t first, the doctors wanted to operate but decided to hold off till Lilit got older and the illness progressed. They aren’t sure if Lilit will make it to her twentieth birthday.

Lilit and her family live in the Sipanik village in Ararat Marz. the family can’t make ends meet let alone pay for Lilit’s medical care.

Lilit’s mother Karineh told us that her other child Benik is ill as well due to the dampness in the trailer they call home. Doctors have diagnosed that the boy has kidney nephritis.

Hetq covered the story of Lilit last year but there was no response from the government. the only form of assistance came from the Diakonia charitable organization in the form of periodic food packages.

This year Lilit sat down and wrote a letter to Armenia’s first Lady Rita Sargsyan. but the letter was addressed to the Ararat Regional Authority. Edik Barseghyan, the Regional Governor, responded that his office had financially assisted the young girl.

The assistance Barseghyan mentions amounted to 20,000 AMD ($60) and was used to but Lilit a school uniform this September.

Lilit’s aunt wrote a second letter to first Lady Rita Sargsyan. she included a picture of the girl breathing with the assistance of the medical device.

A few days ago the family received a reply stating that the first Lady wouldn’t be able to help until February 2012.

Once, the family wrote to the Catholicos saying, “if you refuse to help this girl remember that every day the church bells chime Lilit has held out her hand to you for help.”

The family received no answer from the church.

The Red Cross office in Armenia told the family that it only assists those with HIV/AIDS.

Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP Tigran Stepanyan is the legislative representative for the village of Sipanik. Narineh says she wrote to the PAP office in Masis but that her request for assistance was turned down. MP Stepanyan is aware of the girl’s medical condition but said he doesn’t deal with such matters.

Narineh also wrote to the Gagik Tsarukyan Foundation, but says they never answered.

Lilit’s mother says that received 25,000 AMD from the village municipality bad they spent it on school supplies.

Narineh has lost all hope. she says that there is no one coming forth to help Lilit.

“Lilit has lost her health but she at least be afforded the chance to have a happy childhood. We draw strength from God and will never give up seeking assistance. there is no one else to rely on. the elections are coming and at least the candidates will be doling out 5,000 Drams for votes,” Narineh laments.

The young girl can’t even watch her favorite cartoons. the TV is tiny and old. the family is forced to burn wood to keep the trailer they live in warm. They collect wood from the streets and even burn discarded clothes found in the trash.

Karineh says that when the fire goes out even water in the house freezes.

When it was time for us to leave, Lilit showed us a picture of a house she painted. the house has two doors,

She said that one of the doors was for her Aunt Narineh and her cousins.

Lilit told us that she cannot imagine living without them.

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Provincial Government of Zamboanga del Sur are joining efforts to reduce poverty incidence in the province.

DSWD Regional Director Teodulo Romo said his office and that of Zamboanga del Sur will venture into cassava…

THE Pagadian City Government inaugurated Friday a P900-million shopping mall that would house commercial establishments and regional government offices at the heart of the city.

The shopping mall, which is a five-storey building known as City Commercial Center or C3, is the first…

THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) announced that graduating secondary students who are interested of availing the scholarship program of its Science Education Institute (SEI) have until October 21 to submit their applications.

DOST Regional Director Brenda Nazareth-Manzano…

SIXTY policemen underwent a three-day training on Tourist Oriented Police for Community Order and Protection (Topcop) under the auspices of the Department of Tourism (DOT) in Zamboanga City.

DOT Regional Director Mary June Bugante said the three-day training tackled different issues and…

THREE junk shop workers were injured in an explosion in a northwest village in the city Thursday, a police official said.

Police Station 7 commander Felixberto Martinez said the incident happened around 11:15 a.m. at Curuan Junk shop in the village of Tumaga, four kilometers northwest…

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is intensifying its tax campaign here in Western Mindanao to attain its target collection of P3.327 billion for this year, a BIR official said.

BIR Regional Director Albert Alocilja, who was installed into office last Monday, said part of their…

THE Provincial Government of Basilan is embarking on rubber propagation program aimed to increase its production in the province.

Basilan Governor Jum Akbar said they have established rubber tree nursery to produce the needed seedlings to be planted in the different parts of the province…

THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through the Regional Information Technology and E-Commerce Committee (RITECC) has launched in Zamboanga Peninsula the Starbooks project.

DOST Regional director Brenda Nazareth-Manzano said her officer has recently released a P760,324 grant…

TWO boy scouts died while nine others were wounded when a dump truck they were riding collided with a bus in Zamboanga Sibugay Wednesday afternoon.

Western Mindanao Command spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Randolph Cabangbang said the incident happened around 2:50 p.m. Wednesday at Sitio…

PHILIPPINE Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) operatives have arrested a public school teacher in a buy-bust operation in a west coast village in Zamboanga City.

PDEA Regional Director Adzhar Albani said the buy-bust operation was carried out around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in front of a lottery…

ZAMBOANGA CITY – The City Council unanimously approved two resolutions during its regular session Tuesday seeking the protection of tarsiers and its natural habitats in this city.

The first resolution prohibits people to hunt, kill and capture tarsiers for private keeping, while the…

THOUSANDS of residents have benefited from the outreach program during the one-day Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) peace caravan in the nearby island province of Basilan, officials said Wednesday.

The peace caravan, which was the first be held in Basilan, is dubbed as “Biyahe Tungo…

GOVERNMENT troops have killed a bandit in a 30-minute encounter in an island barangay east of Zamboanga City, a military official said Tuesday.

Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ) commander Colonel Buenaventura Pascual said the clash took place Tuesday morning in the village of Landang Laum,…

THE Zamboanga City Police Office (ZCPO), in coordination with the military’s Task Force Zamboanga, has tightened security at a secondary school in a west coast village in Zamboanga City.

ZCPO Director Edwin de Ocampo said he augmented the Police Station 10 personnel to ensure the…

FILIPINO and American navies have conducted a two-day Seaweed Industry Innovation Seminar in Panglima Sugala town, Tawi-Tawi province.

Panglima Sugala is a third class municipality with a population of 33,315 people in 5,406 households, based on the 2000 Census on Population (Popcen)….

A POLICE officer died at a hospital in Zamboanga City a day after motorcycle gunmen shot him.

Senior Police Officer 4 Samman Naing died Saturday afternoon while being treated for gunshot injuries at Zamboanga Brent Hospital and Colleges inc.

NAVY troops on routine patrol intercepted two wooden-hulled ferries loaded with smuggled goods worth P10-million, an official reported.

Rear Admiral Armando Guzman, Naval Forces Western Mindanao command chief, said the ferries were sighted near Cabucan Island, Sulu, Thursday.

ZAMBOANGA City Legal Officer Norberto Patriarca passed away Monday after his three-month battle with lung cancer. he was 61.

Fondly called “Pati” by friends, Patriarca died at 4 a.m. Monday at Ciudad Medical in Zamboanga City where he was admitted for two days.

A TAWI-TAWI-based non-stock and non-profit organization was recently formed called as Bangun Ra’ayat, Incorporated after concerned stakeholders of South Ubian municipality converged to help build a progressive society and to work for the betterment of the islands.

South Ubian, one of the…

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Government troops killed Monday three Abu Sayyaf bandits who held captive a wife of a Scottish national in Basilan province and rescued the hostage victim, officials said.

The rescued businesswoman, Luisa Galvez-Morrison, an Army soldier and at least seven bandits were…

A FISHERIES bureau official has advised fishpond operators in Zamboanga City to secure fingerlings and fry from certified providers to ensure the young species are free from diseases.

Ahadulla Sajili, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) regional director, inspected several…

THE Land Transportation Office (LTO) has intensified its campaign in the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 8749 or the clean Air Act of 1999 here in Zamboanga Peninsula.

LTO Regional Director Aminola Abaton said he already coordinated with other concerned agencies of government for the…

THE persons with disabilities (PWDs) of Zamboanga City will undergo a three-day training on public speaking to enhance their writing and verbal communication skills.

The training to be conducted by the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) College of Communications and Humanities will…

THE Zamboanga Peninsula and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) have registered high employment rate for the month of July, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported.

Zamboanga Peninsula and the (Armm) registered an employment rate of 96.7 percent and 96.3 percent,…

OVER 500 college students have availed of the scholarship programs extended by the Commission of Higher Education (Ched) for this academic year here in Zamboanga Peninsula, a Ched official announced.

Ched Regional Education Supervisor Teresita Pinili said the scholarship programs include…

A child presents symptoms suggestive of tuberculosis, namely a respiratory infection with a productive cough. Microscopic examination of the child's sputum reveals no acid-fast rods. however, examination of gastic washings reveals the presence of both acid-fast and non-acid-fast bacilli. do you think the child has active tuberculosis? explain.

Nkoranza (B/A), Aug. 12  GNA – mr Idris Buabeng, Programme Manager of Medical assistance Programme (MAP) International, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Sunyani, has urged the general public not to attribute Buruli Ulcer cases to superstitions and witchcraft.

Speaking at a refresher training workshop, organised for 35 community-based surveillance volunteers (CBSV) at Nkoranza at the weekend, mr Buabeng explained that the disease was curable and it is not caused by witchcraft.

He said MAP International, which originated from the United States, arrived in Ghana in the year 2008 and started work in Nkoranza District with the objective of offering necessary financial and logistic support towards the control of Buruli Ulcer.

The workshop was organised by the Nkoranza South District Directorate of Education to update the knowledge of the volunteers on the symptoms of the disease, to enable them to detect cases of the disease and report to the health facilities.

Mr Buabeng said MAP was currently supporting health facilities in Nkoranza South and North districts, as well as Sunyani West and Dormaa districts, in managing Buruli Ulcer cases.

He said the Programme offered capacity building for nurses, provided community health volunteers with updated information on the disease and also increased community awareness to control the disease.

The Programme Manager deplored the negative practice and attitude of some pastors, fetish priests/priestesses and herbalists, who kept Buruli ulcer and tuberculosis (TB) patients in homes with the intention of treating them.

He called on prayer camps, religious ministers and fetish priests/priestesses not to place their welfare above the health and attention of patients but rather to refer them to the hospitals.

Mr Charles Kwasi Gyamfi, Nkoranza South District Disease Control Officer called on traditional rulers, religious leaders and teachers to educate Buruli ulcer and TB patients to visit the hospitals.

He noted that, diseases such as leprosy, elephantiasis, yaws and trypasomiasis still existed in some communities and urged the volunteers to report any strange skin disease to health facilities.

Mr Gyamfi later distributed some onchocerciasis drugs to the volunteers for supply to the communities in the disease endemic zones.

The Nkoranza South District Director of Health Services, Madam Salamatu Ibrahim, commended the volunteers for their immense support to the Ghana Health Service, towards the provision of quality health service delivery to the people in the area.

AT least 30% to 40% of people with AIDS in the world also have tuberculosis, the most common opportunistic disease also to infect people whose immunise system has been compromised or destroyed by AIDS.  AIDS opens the door and TB walks through.South Africa and Swaziland have the world’s highest TB prevalence rate, and for this reason alone people here should become more aware of the disease.  unlike HIV infection, which for the most part is contracted only through unprotected sex, TB is only a sneeze away.  When someone who is sick with TB coughs or sneezes, they can infect others.When people suffering from active pulmonary TB cough, sneeze, speak, sing or spit, they expel infectious (and so small as to be invisible to the naked eye) aerosol droplets. a single sneeze can release up to 40 000 droplets.  each one of these droplets may transmit the disease, since the infectious dose of tuberculosis is very low and inhaling fewer than ten bacteria may cause an infection.TreatedAIDS has no cure.  TB can be treated.  But the best plan is to avoid TB entirely.  This would require more thorough TB testing of the population, and putting TB patients on treatment immediately.  TB patients would have to do their part to prevent the spread of the disease by covering their mouths when they cough or sneeze as well as avoid close contact with people while their TB is active.  TB travels through the air on droplets projected when a TB person speaks, sneezes or coughs, so common sense regarding these activities (yes, even singing can spread TB!) should be practised.TB patients are sometimes isolated from the rest of the population to reduce the risk of the disease’s spread.  This was one reason why Swaziland’s new TB hospital was considered essential in a country with such a high TB prevalence rate.TB usually attacks the lungs of infected people, but can also infect other parts of the body.  Most times a person newly infected with TB will not know it, because the disease at first is “latent,” without any symptoms.  However, if TB is not identified, it will become an active disease which, if left untreated, kills more than half of the people it “attacks.”those symptoms, as reported in last week’s column, resemble those of a very severe flu: heavy and persistent (chronic) cough, sometimes producing blood in the sputum, fever, night sweats and weight loss.as said before, treatment is available.  But it is long because TB treatment requires long-term consumption of several types of antibiotics.  Of course, newer strains of multiple drug resistant TB are making conventional treatment difficult. This is bad news, because already an astonishing one-third of the world’s population is believed to be infected by TB, with a new infection striking every second.  it is important to note that the world’s infection rate is stable – a certain percentage of people (as said before over a third of the world’s population) is infected, and this is not rising.  However, the world’s population is rising, so there are actually more people with TB.TB is more prevalent in developing countries like South Africa and Swaziland than in the developed world, where TB cases are usually associated with people living with AIDS.  while TB is the most prevalent disease infected Swazis living with HIV and AIDS, it is also infecting HIV-negative people amongst the general population to such a degree that even if there was no AIDS in the country TB would remain the top public health threat.80% of the populations of Asia and Africa test positive for TB.  in the United States, 5% to 10% of the population tests positive for TB, although that number is alarming to U.S. health officials.in the U.S., TB mostly infects older adults.  in Africa, however, TB mostly infects children in their teens (adolescents) and young adults.one important fact we must remember in Swaziland is that people who are in frequent contact with TB patients are more at risk of acquiring the disease.  People who have intense or intimate contact with TB patients are at risk.  People who have frequent contact with TB patients are at risk.  These factors account for the spread of the disease in Swaziland, even amongst the HIV-negative population.Poverty is an underlying contributor to the spread of TB.  Living quarters in Swaziland are often intimate as people share rooms, even beds, and often rooms are not well ventilated.  Unaware that a sneeze or cough from a TB patient is not the same as a sneeze or cough from someone with a simple head cold (although any sneeze or cough should be avoided by others and suppressed by the person sneezing or coughing), some people do not take simple precautions.  one study found that people with prolonged, frequent or intense contact with TB patients are at particularly high risk of becoming infected, and amongst this group it is estimated that more than one in five (22%) become infected with TB. Caretakers of people living with HIV and AIDS who suffer from TB as well are at risk, and should take precautions and be tested for TB.Health care workers in general, particularly in Swaziland, are also at risk.HIV-positive people are at risk, and should be tested for TB at the first sign of symptoms, or even as a precaution.ContributesSmoking also contributes to TB infection.  Smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day makes the smoker two to four times more likely to become infected with TB.  Smoking destroys lung tissues, and makes the organ more susceptible to diseases like TB and cancer.  Finally, a person in jail is more likely to become infected with TB than someone in another environment.  one study found: “Prisoners, especially in poor countries, are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB.  Prisons provide conditions that allow TB to spread rapidly, due to overcrowding, poor nutrition and a lack of health services.  Since the early 1990s, TB outbreaks have been reported in prisons in many countries in Eastern Europe.  the prevalence of TB in prisons is much higher than among the general population – in some countries as much as 40 times higher.”