Latest news with #WorldTuberculosisDay
Saba Yemen
20-04-2025
- Health
- Saba Yemen
Free comp for chest diseases starts tomorrow in Sana'a City
Sana'a - Saba: The Ministry of Health and Environment, represented by the National Program for Tuberculosis and Chest Disease Control, will launch a free medical camp for tuberculosis and chest diseases tomorrow, Monday, in the capital, Sana'a, coinciding with World Tuberculosis Day, under the slogan "Yes, We Can Eliminate Tuberculosis." Dr. Ihab Al-Saqqaf, Director General of the National Tuberculosis Control Program, explained to the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that the camp, which will be held at the Tuberculosis Hospital in Al-Jarda, over three days, aims to detect tuberculosis and chest diseases early to ensure effective treatment. It also aims to raise community awareness about the dangers of tuberculosis, its transmission methods, and ways to prevent it. He pointed out that the camp will work on accurate diagnosis using the latest equipment and laboratory tests, and will provide free treatment for discovered cases in accordance with international protocols. Dr. Al-Saqqaf confirmed the participation of a select group of consultants and specialists in chest and respiratory diseases, noting that the camp targets cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, extrapulmonary tuberculosis, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and chest infections. The camp also targets cases of respiratory infections, those in contact with tuberculosis patients, and those suffering from a persistent cough for more than two weeks, a high temperature, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, chest pain, or difficulty breathing. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Local)
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
It's Considered an Old-Timey Disease. So Why Are Cases of It on the Rise?
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Tuberculosis has been crawling its way back into the spotlight. In 2020, after a three-decade decline, TB cases in the U.S. began climbing again. Last year, that number was at its highest since 2011. There has been a TB outbreak in Kansas since January 2024, with over 100 people infected and two deaths. Recent data show that Europe saw a 10 percent rise in childhood infections in 2023, with more than 7,500 cases. What with World Tuberculosis Day this week, and the release of John Green's new book Everything Is Tuberculosis last week, TB, which is often thought of as an old-timey disease, might seem to suddenly be a concern once again. In reality, though, tuberculosis never went away. It regularly kills over a million people a year and infects millions more. It is literally the world's deadliest infectious disease—yes, you read that right. It was bumped out of first place by COVID-19 for a while, but it returned to the top last year. We don't hear much about TB in the U.S. because it's largely under control here, but it's a huge threat in other regions, particularly Southeast Asia and Africa. There are treatments for TB. And yet, the federal government's recent cuts to foreign aid mean that many people across the world will no longer be able to access treatment (on top of all the people who already lacked access to treatment). 'We can cure virtually everyone with tuberculosis,' says William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 'We have the capacity to do that.' As Slate's Tony Ho Tran wrote eloquently in a piece about Green's new book: 'It's a decision to let people die.' That decision also increases the risk for Americans, most of whom have long been lucky enough to not have to think about TB. Let's talk about it. So why cases rising in the U.S. right now? Any time there's turbulence in the world, the risk of transmission increases. That's true of most diseases, but especially for TB, which requires long courses of treatment to work. Whether due to armed conflicts, refugee migration, or a global pandemic, 'if populations are in turmoil, public health breaks down,' says Schaffner. 'And tuberculosis control programs come to a screeching halt.' That's what happened in 2020, when COVID brought the world, and TB control programs, to a stop. When those initiatives stall, infected individuals can't receive their treatment, and they can't be monitored and supported while receiving their treatment. That leads to more transmission, which means more infections—which increases risk even in places where the disease has been under control. I'm realizing I don't even know what tuberculosis . Fair enough! It shows up in movies and books as old-fashioned and romantic—think poets wasting away by the seaside of 'consumption' (TB's historical nickname). The wasting-away part is true: 'For the most part, TB is a smoldering disease,' says Schaffner. It kills slowly. But it's definitely not romantic. Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that, after infecting a person, tend to hibernate in the body. It can stay there for five, 10, 20 years, without causing any symptoms. This is known as latent infection, and it's not contagious. Eventually, though, the bacteria wake up, and that's when active infection starts. At that point, the person with the infection is now contagious. The bacteria start eating away at the lungs, destroying tissue. From there, it can move to other parts of the body. Symptoms—prolonged cough, chest pain, weakness, fever—may start off mild. Depending on the person's age and health, they can suffer from active infection for more than a year, losing weight due to lack of appetite and extreme abdominal pain, until their lungs collapse or fill with fluid—or a few other terrible possibilities. But there are treatments available, right? Yes. 'TB is curable and preventable,' according to the World Health Organization's website. However, treatment isn't a straightforward one-and-done kind of thing. It involves six months of a multidrug regimen; using just one drug can lead to the bacteria's becoming resistant such that they simply do not respond to that drug. In some cases, if treatment is implemented incorrectly, a person's bacteria can become resistant to multiple drugs, which then makes it very difficult to treat. Multidrug-resistant TB is considered a pretty serious public health issue. Crucially, you don't want something happening in the middle of TB treatment that disrupts a patient's access to drugs. The Trump administration's funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which among many other things supports TB treatment programs, are just that kind of disruption. Yikes. What about preventing TB in the first place? Is there a vaccine? There is one, but it's not very effective for adults or adolescents. For babies and small children in countries where TB is common, it can help protect against death and more severe illness. Finding a new, better TB vaccine is one of the holy grails of vaccinology, says Schaffner, along with better flu and COVID vaccines and an HIV vaccine: 'These are at the top of the list of every vaccinologist's Christmas list.' Can we treat TB, then? Get ahead of things, instead of waiting for the infection to become active? We can! And that's the ideal situation: Find everyone with latent TB and treat them before they become contagious and experience symptoms. 'That's actually part of the plan of every state's TB program,' says Schaffner. 'And we need to do more of that.' You can test for TB with an easy skin test; there's also a newer blood-test option. The good news is that if you do have latent TB, you don't have to wait until it becomes active to receive treatment (which is still a regimen of multiple drugs over several months). OK, I'm ready to get tested! Point me to the nearest TB testing stand. If you're near the outbreak in Kansas, you may be contacted by public health authorities to get tested. In those cases, 'please cooperate with the public health authorities, because it's to your own benefit,' says Schaffner. But in general, we don't do mass TB testing in the U.S. because there's no real need. Despite being deadly, TB is not contagious in the way that measles or COVID is—TB typically requires prolonged exposure. Certain populations are at higher risk of TB, Schaffner says, including people in low-income areas, people who have been in prison, people with HIV infection, or people raised in countries where TB is more common. Screening is more important in those communities. Other populations, like health care workers, are regularly tested for TB. But if you don't fall into any of those categories, it's very, very, very unlikely that you're harboring TB bacteria. But with TB rates rising in parts of the world … Right. People in the U.S. are extremely fortunate to not have to think about tuberculosis on the regular. As the richest country in the world, we have a responsibility to help those who are less advantaged. So we should care about the rising cases for humanitarian reasons. But TB in other parts of the world does also concern the U.S. directly. 'Germs don't need a passport,' says Schaffner. 'Whatever's over there can be over here in 24 hours.' This is true of any infectious disease, and something we saw very clearly with COVID-19. Again, TB is not at all like COVID—and the primary reason to worry about TB is because of the destruction it causes globally, not because of the risk it poses to you personally. But the more TB spreads, the higher your chances of being near an outbreak. Undoubtedly, the cuts to USAID funding—which, in addition to funding prevention, testing, and treatment services, has been the world's third-largest TB research funder—will lead to more illness and death. It might not be immediately apparent in the data, says Schaffner, because TB is a relatively slow-moving disease. But many lives are already being affected. As WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told Reuters: 'The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The impact and history of tuberculosis in New Mexico
Video: Our 2021 report on how tuberculosis numbers dropped in New Mexico from 2006 to 2019. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Every year, World Tuberculosis Day is observed on March 24. This marks the date a doctor first discovered exactly which bacteria was causing the disease, thereby paving the way toward diagnosis and treatment. Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterial infection that commonly impacts the lungs, although it can also affect other areas including the spine, brain, or kidneys. The disease can be spread through coughing, sneezing, and talking. In the late nineteenth century, some tuberculosis patients sought treatment in the form of the dry air, and plentiful sunshine found here in New Mexico. KRQE News 13 spoke with Richard Melzer, author of 'Sanatoriums of New Mexico' and former University of New Mexico history professor, to find out more. According to Melzer, there are a few different reasons people fled to New Mexico to try and find a cure. He confirmed one motivator was the good, clear air at a high altitude, although the other driving factors are a bit more complex. For some patients, it may have come down to money. While plenty of places in the southwest offer dry air and sunny skies, cities like Colorado Springs or Phoenix were a bit steeper than New Mexico. As for Albuquerque specifically, it became an easy enough city to access with the addition of the train coming from Santa Fe. 'A lot of [patients] came, and taxis would be waiting at the [train] depot,' said Melzer. 'The taxi would be ready to bring them to a hospital, and they would have died enroute.' Patients were often treated at sanitoriums specifically designated for those with tuberculosis. Albuquerque opened up quite a few of these, such as St. Joseph's. The influx of tuberculosis patients may not have been completely unexpected for New Mexico. Melzer says people have always come to the state in hopes the air would help clear up various respiratory illnesses, although none of those cases impacted the state quite as much as TB. 'It's important to remember and appreciate where this all came from,' said Melzer. 'The origins of our health history, and what all was made.' Beyond the clear air and the affordability, Melzer partly attributes the large amount of New Mexico tuberculosis patients to marketing. According to Melzer, New Mexico was promoted as a wellness country, with local commerce chambers even launching campaigns to further solidify that notion. Melzer says this had a significant impact for businesses. 'In terms of clothes, pajamas, robes, slippers…' said Melzer. 'Every year they had different fashion, if they were wealthy enough. Then of course drug stores, real estate agents, funeral homes, taxis, books…' At the height of its outbreak, tuberculosis was known as the 'romantic disease.' That nickname reached as far as Albuquerque, where Melzer says patients were known as 'lovers,' and Central Avenue was even known as 'lover's alley' due to the large amount of sanitoriums nearby. When asked about the importance of this history, Melzer had this to say. 'If we didn't have that vaccine developed to deal with TB after 1940, it would still be the deadliest disease,' said Melzer. 'It was the number one killer, and we would still be facing that if we hadn't come up with a vaccine, and if people hadn't taken the vaccine.' According to the CDC, there were 41 tuberculosis cases in New Mexico in 2024. Nationally, there were 10,347 cases that year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sentara doctor says asbestos on Hampton Roads shipyards can spark tuberculosis
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — While tuberculosis has options for prevention and is curable, more than 1 million people die from the disease on a global scale annually, making it the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, according to the World Health Organization. And with President Donald Trump on the verge of cutting foreign aid, on World Tuberculosis Day, the future of research and treatment looks grim. 'It will certainly curtail a lot of the new treatments that we have for tuberculosis, especially funding in parts of the world that doesn't have the resources,' said Dr. Sherif El-Mahdy with Sentara. Piling on to the problem is a surge of TB now circulating worldwide. 'We are certainly seeing some resurgence of tuberculosis cases now, and a lot of especially drug-resistant tuberculosis,' he said. 'The problem with tuberculosis is that it is a very slowly growing organism.' The treatment ranges from six months up to a year, with many people not completing the duration of therapy. 'That's a real challenge here in this country,' El-Mahdy said. 'It's easier to administer because of all the resources that we have. And in other parts of the world, it may be difficult to have somebody watch that patient take those medicines in the scheduled time. ' El-Mahdy describes TB as a mimic that affects every system in the body. 'Once it sets host in the lungs, it can spread to various other organs,' he said. 'And that's why the classic teaching is that it's a differential diagnosis of any infection in the body.' The amount a person should get screened is dependent up on their exposure — for instance, patients on dialysis, patients who are going to skilled nursing facilities or patients in the correctional facilities where there is a little bit of high risk exposure.. Symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, weight loss and lack of appetite. El-Mahdy sees a handful of tuberculosis cases each year. 'One thing about this area too is asbestos,' he said. 'So there's a lot of this because of the shipyards that we have here. A lot of the older folks, the retired folks that have exposure to asbestos and TB asbestos are are also closely related as well.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
City of El Paso recognizes World Tuberculosis Day
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The City of El Paso's Department of Public Health is reminding the community about the year-round Tuberculosis screenings and services, in recognition of World Tuberculosis Day which lands on Monday, March 24. The City says World Tuberculosis Day is observed annually to raise awareness about the serious infectious bacterial disease that primarily affects the lungs and can be fatal if left untreated. The Department of Public Health offers Tuberculosis screenings on a sliding fee scale and accepts insurance, ensuring access to testing and care for all residents. Individuals seeking a screening or more information can contact the Public Health Respiratory Diseases Clinic at (915) 212-6609. 'Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. While it most commonly affects the lungs, it can also impact other parts of the body such as the kidneys, spine, and brain,' the City said. Tuberculosis is spread through the air when a person with active Tuberculosis disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks, or sings. People nearby may breathe in the bacteria and become infected, the City said. The City says common symptoms of pulmonary Tuberculosis include the following: A cough lasting three weeks or longer Chest pain Coughing up blood or phlegm from deep in the lungs The City says other general Tuberculosis symptoms include the following: Fatigue or weakness Weight loss Loss of appetite Chills Fever Night sweats For more information about Tuberculosis services and other health screenings, visit and click on 'TB Control' under the Services tab or call 211. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
