Why You Should Care
TB is a curable disease, needlessly taking millions of lives each year. Every individual has their own reasons for joining the fight against TB. Here are some of ours:
Drug-resistant TB is on the rise and is a threat to everyoneThe main risk factor for contracting TB is breathing
TB kills one person every 20 seconds
Katie Roberts
Border screenings are impractical
People are living with HIV but dying from TB
There is no effective vaccine to protect you from TB
TB control is one of the most effective ways to help people out of poverty
Stigma keeps this disease underground
Drug-resistant TB is on the rise and is a threat to everyone
Drug-resistant forms of TB are spreading and are incredibly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to cure. In some sampled populations, fatality rates approach 100%. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), resistant to not only the most effective first-line drugs but also to critical second-line drugs, has now been reported in 45 countries, including all the G8 countries. Current methods of testing for drug-resistance can take between 6 to 16 weeks, so many patients with drug-resistant TB die before the disease can be accurately diagnosed.
The main risk factor for contracting TB is breathing
Unless you live in a well-ventilated isolation chamber or always breathe air from an oxygen tank, you are at risk of becoming infected with TB, no matter where you live. The 41 patrons at a bar in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US discovered this once they tested positive for TB, unaware that another regular at the bar was infectious with the disease. On average, one TB-contagious person infects 10 to 15 people with TB every year. New evidence suggests that some strains of XDR-TB can pass from person to person at a more rapid rate than standard TB. If you find yourself in a cab that someone with TB was in even an hour ago, on a flight with someone with TB, or in any enclosed space, you are at risk.
TB kills one person every 20 seconds
Many people think of TB as a disease of the past, but in reality, over 2 billion people are currently infected with the TB bacterium, roughly one-third of the world's population. One in 10 of those infected will become sick with active TB in their lifetime, and in 2007 alone, TB killed 1.7 million people. That’s 4,660 deaths a day or one death from TB every 20 seconds. This is not a disease of the past, but a present-day global epidemic.
Katie Roberts
For three days, Katie Roberts lay unresponsive on a pediatric ward. The two-year-old's eyes were shut, her face sallow, and the drips taped to her arms only accentuated her wasted limbs. Katie had been ill for nearly a month with a high temperature, sickness and weight loss which her [doctor] had repeatedly blamed on a virus. Despite being on large doses of antibiotics, Katie was showing no signs of recovery. Three days later, a doctor asked if she'd come into contact with anyone who had TB. That question probably saved her life. She had indeed been exposed through her aunt's boyfriend, James. He had been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, TB of the lungs, 18 months earlier, although he never found out how he had contracted it. But while many think the disease had been eradicated, around 8,000 cases of TB are still reported in the UK every year, mostly in major cities (just last month, 30 pupils at a secondary school in Birmingham were diagnosed with TB). "I hope that everyone who reads this realizes the danger of underestimating TB," says [Katie’s mother]. "It's on the increase and is not just confined to the inner cities or high-risk groups. And, as this story shows, it can still wreck lives."
- Excerpted from the Daily Mail (UK), May 12, 2008
Border screenings are impractical
TB anywhere is TB everywhere. With people crossing national borders more and more often, infectious diseases like TB can now travel anywhere in the world. Strict screening at airports is impractical, given the time it takes to conduct a test and make a diagnosis. Moreover, such screening is often ineffective since individuals carrying the TB bacilli – which is one third of the world's population – only become an infectious risk to others months or years later following their infection.
People are living with HIV but dying from TB
Without proper treatment, 90% of those living with HIV die within months of contracting TB, and it can kill within weeks. Lack of detection and treatment for standard TB and increasingly prevalent drug-resistant forms threaten to undermine years of progress and significant funding commitments to fight HIV/AIDS. An HIV-positive person is 50 times more likely to develop active TB than an HIV-negative person.
There is no effective vaccine to protect you from TB
Many people recall being vaccinated for TB as a child. What most people do not know is that vaccine – the BCG vaccine – is only effective in providing practical protection from TB in childhood years. Unfortunately, the vaccine is unable to prevent the most contagious forms of TB during someone’s teens and throughout adulthood. A new and truly effective vaccine to protect people against TB is crucial.
TB control is one of the most effective ways to help people out of poverty
Research has shown that controlling TB is one of the most cost-effective ways governments and donors can spend their resources. Poor health is a major impediment for escaping poverty – and TB is both a consequence and a cause of modern-day poverty. 8.8 million people become sick with TB each year, and the average TB patient loses 3-4 months of work time, with lost earnings up to 20-30% of annual household income. Some households lose 100% of their income. About 75 per cent of TB infections and deaths occur in the 15 to 54 year age group, the most economically productive age group in the population. The GDP per capita may reduce up to one per cent every year because of TB.
Stigma keeps this disease underground
For Bobby Cabenegro, walking just 100 meters seems like "playing one day of basketball." This young Filipino man is unable to attend school or hold a job, and can barely manage to climb a flight of stairs. Diagnosed with TB at age 15, he has started and stopped treatment several times, often in denial about his disease or convinced he could not be cured. He now suffers from a drug-resistant form of TB and has little hope for recovery. Yet, Bobby's friends and classmates in Manila do not know he has TB. Instead, he has told them that he has cancer because it is 'socially more acceptable to have cancer than TB in the Philippines,' he says. Spurned by their friends or communities, and often stigmatized by society, TB patients endure more than just the physical symptoms of the disease. The rejection many TB patients feel adds emotional suffering that often prevents them from seeking the treatment they need or completing treatment once it is begun.
- Excerpted from "TB: A Crossroads. WHO Report on the Global TB Epidemic, 1998"