Ariel Pablos-Mendez
February 2001
Tuberculosis (TB) is the world's leading infectious killer of young and middle-aged adults, causing 26 percent of avoidable deaths in the developing world. The Global Burden of Disease study (see brief 2 in this collection) places TB among the seven leading causes of lost Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) well into the 21st century.
TB is a highly infectious airborne disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Crowded homes and congregate settings (such as shelters, hospitals, and prisons) tend to foster transmission. Although pulmonary TB is the most common form, the disease can affect virtually any organ (for example, lymph nodes, brain, and genitals). Classical clinical manifestations include coughing (sometimes bloody), fever, and weight loss. The germ may remain dormant for years before it emerges as "active" disease. While activation of dormant infection is hard to predict, TB emerges most commonly among people with compromised immunity, such as those with malnutrition, diabetes, and HIV/AIDS infection.
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I found it interesting that TB was the leading infectious killer. Why is TB so threatening when it can be so easily treated? It was really interesting to find out that tuberculosis can stay in someone's body for a long amount of time without being "active". Will tuberculosis continue to be an increasing threat? When will third world countries gain easy access to the drugs?
1 comment:
Good job asking questions about the information you find. A couple things to keep in mind:
- Be sure to post consistently (about once a day), as opposed to posting everything the night before it's due. Doing a little bit every day will be a more effective way to absorb the information than doing a lot all at once.
- Address all the different angles of information (history, geography, pharmacology, government, etc.)
Hope this helps!
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