World TB Day

Unfortunately, World TB Day isn’t as exciting as it sounds. Tuberculosis isn’t something to celebrate, but let’s see what progress has been made in the world recently regarding this nasty disease . The CDC says that the theme for this year’s World TB Day is, “It’s TIME”. “Time for what?” you might wonder. It’s time to eliminate the disease. The plan to accomplish this is a relatively simple one: test and treat latent TB infections. A large population of individuals in the US currently have latent TB infections and they are at risk for developing TB disease in the future. The best way to prevent this is to test and treat patients who have a latent TB infection. This will prevent further progression of the disease. Elimination of the disease would also be furthered by testing and treating individuals with active TB infections.

You may be wondering, “what’s the difference between latent TB infection and TB disease anyways?”. Well, an individual with a latent TB infection will most likely test positive if given a TB test but they are not sick and do not show any symptoms. This is because they have the bacteria in their body, but their immune system is keeping the bacteria from multiplying. This is called a latent TB infection. But, if an individual has a weak immune system, they won’t be able to keep the bacteria from multiplying. Once this happens, it is considered an “active infection” and symptoms will progress. This series of events are characterized by TB disease. Individuals in this stage are highly contagious and will experience a variety of symptoms. In both cases, however, individuals are in need of treatment.

The World Health Organization has taken a huge initiative to end TB by 2030. This initiative’s success depends greatly on global access to preventative measures against this disease, including; education, testing, and funding of other TB programs. The WHO comments on the importance of maintaining this initiative even during the chaos of the current Covid-19 outbreak. After all, “COVID-19 is highlighting just how vulnerable people with lung diseases and weakened immune systems can be” as stated by WHO Director General. With that perspective in mind, it is just as important to maintain effective treatments and TB services along with funding the national programs that are battling TB and trying to eliminate this disease’s existence once and for all. We can only handle one respiratory pandemic at a time, so let’s keep TB under control.