World Tuberculosis Day - "Unite to End TB"

On 24 March every year, we celebrate the World Tuberculosis Day. This day marks an opportunity for us to support tuberculosis (TB) awareness, prevention, and care efforts and to focus on the theme of "Unite to End TB”. From 2016, WHO has initiated a campaign for uniting efforts to “Leave no one behind” 

Facts and Stats on TB:
1. From the year 2000 to 2015, 49 million lives were saved with an effective diagnosis and treatment.
2. In 2015, 48, 00, 00 people developed multidrug-resistant TB.
3. In the previous year, WHO reported 10.4 million with TB; out of which 1.8 million  TB deaths   were recorded making TB the top infectious killer worldwide!

Symptoms of Tuberculosis:

Following are some of the symptoms in tuberculosis:

• More than 3 weeks of persistent cough
• Fever - Low grade
• Chills and night sweats
• Unexplained weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Fatigue and malaise

Diagnosis Tests of TB:

Some diagnostic tests used in TB are:

• TB skin test (TST): A positive report, will only confirm if a person has been infected with TB. However, whether the TB infection is latent or it has progressed as TB disease is not ascertained by this test.
• Chest x-ray
• Sputum examination
• Imaging techniques like MRI and CT are also used.

Tuberculosis Treatment:

Following are the objectives of the TB treatment:

• Complete cure of the disease and restoration of the quality of life of the patient
• Decrease the TB transmission to others
• Avoid the development and transmission of drug-resistant TB
• Preventing relapse of TB 

Prevention of Tuberculosis:

• TB can be prevented by the following ways:
• BCG Vaccination: Bacille Calmette-Guérin is a live vaccine against tuberculosis.
• Early diagnosis: results in early treatment which is the most effective way to prevent the spread of this dreadful disease.

We should always remember that “health is wealth”. In this jet age, we have no or little time to think about our health. What good is all the money we earn, when we cannot even enjoy the benefits? Hence, we should always keep our health on priority.

The best way to do so is to monitor the health status regularly by a comprehensive health checkup for the better treatment.