Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by the invasion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into the human body. Due to biological and sociological factors such as the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium and the increase in social mobility, tuberculosis is re-intensifying its epidemic worldwide, with 1.9 billion people infected by the bacterium worldwide, 20 million existing tuberculosis patients, 10 million new tuberculosis cases detected each year, and 3 million deaths from tuberculosis each year. Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease killer in adults. In response to the worsening global tuberculosis epidemic, the World Health Organization adopted the “Declaration of Global Tuberculosis Emergency” at the 46th World Health Assembly in 1993, calling for urgent global measures to combat the tuberculosis crisis, for which the World Health Organization and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease have set March 24 each year as “World Tuberculosis Day”.
Understanding tuberculosis.
1. What is tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis, commonly known as “consumption”, is a chronic infectious disease caused by the invasion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis into the human body, and can develop in all organs of the body (except hair and nails), with tuberculosis accounting for more than 80% of cases.
2. How is tuberculosis transmitted?
It is mainly transmitted through the respiratory tract. A sputum smear-positive TB patient coughs, sneezes, or spews out droplets with TB bacilli when speaking loudly, and a healthy person inhales the lungs, causing infection and getting TB disease. According to statistics, an infectious TB patient can infect an average of 10-15 people in a year.
3.Does infection with the tuberculosis bacillus cause illness?
Generally, about 10% of people who are infected with the tuberculosis bacterium will develop tuberculosis.
4.Who is prone to tuberculosis?
(1) Close contacts of infectious tuberculosis, especially infants and children.
(2) Young and old people with old TB lesions in the lungs or a positive tuberculin test.
(3) Persons infected or affected by AIDS.
(4) Those suffering from malnutrition, silicosis, diabetes, post-gastrectomy, and prolonged treatment with hormones or anti-cancer drugs.
(5) Part-time workers, long-term workers in harmful gas or air-conditioning environment.
5.Why should our government use the WB loan to control TB?
The main considerations are: first, the current serious TB epidemic in China, according to the survey, about 330 million people in China have been infected with TB bacteria, about 6 million TB patients, of which 1.5 million are infectious, and up to 250,000 die of TB each year; second, the national TB epidemic is declining slowly; third, the urgent need to strengthen the prevention and treatment of TB in rural areas, the country’s rural population accounts for more than 80%, and its prevalence rate is 2 times that of urban areas. 2 times, the current rural economy is still not rich, and the state is unable to provide sufficient funds to increase the investment in controlling TB, in order to help farmers to solve the disease as soon as possible, as soon as possible from poverty.
6.Do you know the origin and significance of World TB Day on March 24 every year?
March 24, 1882 is the day when the world-famous German scientist Guo Hao read a paper on the discovery of tuberculosis bacilli in Berlin. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kuoho’s discovery in 1982, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) jointly initiated World TB Day on March 24 to raise public awareness of tuberculosis. The recent focus on the global TB epidemic led to World TB Day becoming a major international health event for the United Nations for the first time in 1998. “The main objective of World TB Day is to mobilize public support to strengthen global TB control efforts so that the biggest killer in human history, tuberculosis, can be diagnosed and effectively treated in a timely manner. 7.
7. What are the main effective ways to control tuberculosis?
Timely detection and thorough treatment of the source of TB infection, i.e., sputum smear-positive TB patients, which protects healthy people from reduced or no transmission of TB bacteria, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of TB patients. The most effective way to control and cure the infectious source of TB is to apply direct face-to-face short-course chemotherapy (DOTS for short), which can be applied to make the infectious source of TB lose its infectivity in the short term, avoid the occurrence of multiple drug-resistant patients, significantly reduce relapse and get a complete cure.
Timely detection and diagnosis of tuberculosis.
1. What are the common symptoms of tuberculosis disease?
Most patients with tuberculosis disease will have local and systemic symptoms. Local symptoms include cough, sputum, hemoptysis, chest pain, shortness of breath, etc. Systemic symptoms include fever, malaise, night sweats, fatigue and malaise, and women often have menstrual disorders. Therefore, those who have cough or sputum for more than three weeks or have hemoptysis or bloody sputum can go to the local tuberculosis clinic for free examination. Patients with confirmed infectious tuberculosis are provided with free anti-tuberculosis drug treatment and management.
2.What tests should I take if I suspect I have tuberculosis?
X-rays should be taken, and sputum smear should be done to check for antacid bacilli if abnormal shadows are found on the chest X-ray, and tuberculin test should be done for children, and CT scan of lungs should be done if necessary.
3.What is the most important method to diagnose tuberculosis?
Sputum examination is the most important method.