Tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2014-06-03

About TB

TB is a chronic infectious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis that does damage to organs. The lungs take the brunt of the virus, and it’s called TB when lungs are infected. Once a person is infected with TB bacterium, they carry the bacterium throughout their life. Approximately 10 to 15 percent of the infected will develop active TB under certain conditions, becoming new TB patients and continuing to infect others. TB is a respiratory infectious disease, mainly transmitted through inhalation of TB patients’ fluids from coughing and sneezing. Related studies show that each contagious TB patient can infect 10 to 15 people throughout their life.

TB claims the most deaths among diseases caused by a single pathogenic bacterium, being one of the major public health problems in the world. TB is a Category B reported infectious disease in China, and it is one of the major communicable diseases.

About drug-resistant TB

If mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from patients can still grow in one or multiple anti-TB drugs, it is known as drug-resistant TB, which consists of four types.

Single drug-resistant: Resistant to only one anti-TB drug

Poly-resistant: Resistant to more than one anti-TB drug (excluding resistance to both isoniazid and rifampicin).

Multi-drug-resistant: At least resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin at the same time.

Extensively drug-resistant: In addition to isoniazid and rifampicin, resistant to any fluoroquinolones drugs and at least to kanamycin, amikacin or capreomycin.

China is one of the 27 countries heavily burned with multi-drug resistant TB. A survey on the country’s TB drug resistance for 2007 and 2008 showed that the multi-drug-resistant rate was 8.32 percent, and extensive drug resistance rate was 0.68 percent. It’s estimated that there are 120,000 new multi-drug-resistant TB patients every year, ranking second worldwide, with 9,000 extensively drug-resistant TB patients.

For one thind, compared with ordinary TB patients, the multi-drug resistant TB patients impose more infectious hazards. Once those infected are sick, they will develop primary multi-drug-resistant TB with a longer infection period. For another, they will also suffer high costs of treatment, which involves second-line anti-TB drugs and treatment time of up to 2-3 years. As a result, costs will be about 100 times of ordinary tuberculosis costs. Multi-drug resistant TB will not only bring to patients and their families a heavy mental and economic burden, but also affect social stability and economic sustainable development.

Timely treatment of TB patients is an effective approach to TB prevention and control

TB is caused by respiratory tract infection. Timely detection and treatment of TB patients are the most effective means to prevent the spread of TB.

Symptoms For cough and expectoration lasting more than two weeks, one should go to the hospital to get a diagnosis and treatment.