You can treat HIV-related tuberculosis
Oct 05, 2004
Tuberculosis (TB), a very old disease found in the Egyptian mummies 3,000 years ago, continues to threaten our lives to date. TB germs infect 32% of the world’s people. In the developing world, including Uganda, 70% of the population is infected. It registers eight million new cases a year and th
By Paul Semugoma
Tuberculosis (TB), a very old disease found in the Egyptian mummies 3,000 years ago, continues to threaten our lives to date. TB germs infect 32% of the world’s people. In the developing world, including Uganda, 70% of the population is infected. It registers eight million new cases a year and three million deaths.
The cause
Bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis cause TB. They are tough and hard bacteria. They grow slowly and like our body organs, which are rich in oxygen and blood. The lungs are a favourite location for the germs.
The Spread
When a person suffering from TB of the lungs coughs, laughs, sings or talks, the bacteria comes out and is spread into the air, where they can stay afloat for several hours. When another person breathes in these germs, they settle in his lungs, multiply and flourish. Although almost everybody gets infected, few develop TB. Only one person in 20 develops the disease within two years of infection. Later, only one person in 20 gets active TB.
What happens
The immune system is our greatest defense against TB. It attacks the TB germs and tries to kill them off.
However, most of the time, it fails, but succeeds in walling them off from the rest of the body in ‘tubercles’.
The germs are not dead, but do not infect. This situation is called latent TB. In a few people, the walling off fails. The bacteria multiply.
They eat the lung and cause huge cavities. They erode the blood vessels, get into the blood and invade other organs. This is the killer TB or active TB. Failure of the immune system may be caused by a poor diet, HIV, alcoholism, cancer and some drugs. However, the immune system is weak in the very young and the very old.
Symptoms
They are slow and insidious. A person feels weaker over months, loses weight, has poor appetite, has fevers, chills as well as night sweats.
He may have a wet cough with heavy sputum or a cloudy cough with traces of blood. There may also be chest pain. Doctors diagnose TB from the symptoms: a chest x-ray and an examination of the sputum.
Treatment
TB drugs have to be taken in combination- with as many as four drugs at a go. They have to be taken over a long period of time covering six, eight or 12 months.
This is because the bacteria are tough, grow slowly and quickly become resistant to a single drug. It is important to take all the drugs within the prescribed period of time. Once resistance sets in, the drugs are useless.
Prevention
It is possible to prevent infection:
- Avoid over crowded, enclosed spaces. School dormitories, barracks or prisons can spread the disease.
- A cough lasting more than three weeks should be investigated.
- Cover your mouth when you cough. Do not spit everywhere. Flush or cover the spit with soil.
- Every newborn child in Uganda should receive BCG vaccination. It prevents killer diseases of forms like TB meningitis.
- One stops spreading the germs within two weeks of starting treatment.
So, if you have TB, make sure you get treated: Take all the drugs, all the doses, and cover the correct length of time. TB drugs are free in Uganda. If you do not treat the disease, you spread it and die slowly. If you do not treat yourself well, the germs become resistant, the drugs useless and you die of TB.
But TB is curable. Even TB with HIV can be cured, as long as one gets the full treatment.
Tuberculosis (TB), a very old disease found in the Egyptian mummies 3,000 years ago, continues to threaten our lives to date. TB germs infect 32% of the world’s people. In the developing world, including Uganda, 70% of the population is infected. It registers eight million new cases a year and three million deaths.
The cause
Bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis cause TB. They are tough and hard bacteria. They grow slowly and like our body organs, which are rich in oxygen and blood. The lungs are a favourite location for the germs.
The Spread
When a person suffering from TB of the lungs coughs, laughs, sings or talks, the bacteria comes out and is spread into the air, where they can stay afloat for several hours. When another person breathes in these germs, they settle in his lungs, multiply and flourish. Although almost everybody gets infected, few develop TB. Only one person in 20 develops the disease within two years of infection. Later, only one person in 20 gets active TB.
What happens
The immune system is our greatest defense against TB. It attacks the TB germs and tries to kill them off.
However, most of the time, it fails, but succeeds in walling them off from the rest of the body in ‘tubercles’.
The germs are not dead, but do not infect. This situation is called latent TB. In a few people, the walling off fails. The bacteria multiply.
They eat the lung and cause huge cavities. They erode the blood vessels, get into the blood and invade other organs. This is the killer TB or active TB. Failure of the immune system may be caused by a poor diet, HIV, alcoholism, cancer and some drugs. However, the immune system is weak in the very young and the very old.
Symptoms
They are slow and insidious. A person feels weaker over months, loses weight, has poor appetite, has fevers, chills as well as night sweats.
He may have a wet cough with heavy sputum or a cloudy cough with traces of blood. There may also be chest pain. Doctors diagnose TB from the symptoms: a chest x-ray and an examination of the sputum.
Treatment
TB drugs have to be taken in combination- with as many as four drugs at a go. They have to be taken over a long period of time covering six, eight or 12 months.
This is because the bacteria are tough, grow slowly and quickly become resistant to a single drug. It is important to take all the drugs within the prescribed period of time. Once resistance sets in, the drugs are useless.
Prevention
It is possible to prevent infection:
- Avoid over crowded, enclosed spaces. School dormitories, barracks or prisons can spread the disease.
- A cough lasting more than three weeks should be investigated.
- Cover your mouth when you cough. Do not spit everywhere. Flush or cover the spit with soil.
- Every newborn child in Uganda should receive BCG vaccination. It prevents killer diseases of forms like TB meningitis.
- One stops spreading the germs within two weeks of starting treatment.
So, if you have TB, make sure you get treated: Take all the drugs, all the doses, and cover the correct length of time. TB drugs are free in Uganda. If you do not treat the disease, you spread it and die slowly. If you do not treat yourself well, the germs become resistant, the drugs useless and you die of TB.
But TB is curable. Even TB with HIV can be cured, as long as one gets the full treatment.