Introduction
Tuberculosis (TB) is the second greatest cause of death due to a single infectious agent with majority of deaths occurring in low and middle income countries1. The often fatal combination with HIV has further complicated the situation along with multi-drug and extensive drug resistance. South Africa, a middle-income country, bears a large burden of the TB problem with exceptionally high rates of HIV/TB co-infection and drug-resistance. South Africa has an incidence of 1,003 TB cases per 100,000, a prevalence of 857 TB cases per 100,000, and mortality of 59 per 100,0002, ranking as the third highest in TB burden in the world just behind China and India3. In 2012, the incidence of HIV/TB co-infection was 631 per 100,000 and 6.7% of retreatment cases were shown to be multi-drug resistant2, adding to the propensity of the TB problem in the country.
Program Rationale
South Africa is in national partnership with the STOP TB organization and has implemented a national tuberculosis control program starting in 2004 with added political commitment of a tuberculosis strategic plan in 2007. This national program advocates the message and mission of The Global Plan to Stop TB, an initiative within the STOP TB partnership. The Global Plan to Stop TB (Part I) identifies the strategic directions in order to meet goals of ensuring effective TB diagnosis, treatment and cure and stopping the transmission of TB among numerous other objectives. By implementing the STOP TB strategy through its national tuberculosis control program, South Africa sets forth goals for TB control specifying that it aims to “reduce mortality and morbidity attributable to TB, prevent the development of drug resistance, and ensure accurate measurements and eval...
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...uence access to care. Focusing efforts on key populations and mitigating developmental challenges such as education and employment and other societal inequalities are crucial to furthering the response to the TB control program3. Testing for HIV in TB patients should become common practice. Decentralization continues to show benefits by providing more opportunities for care and adequate treatment to MDR-TB patients. However, adequate training and supervision of healthcare workers should be ensured. Continued government support is crucial to the sustained success of the program as much has already been accomplished through government and domestic funding. Monitoring and evaluation efforts should continue to inform future planning and decisions. All in all, South Africa still has much to do on all fronts to curb TB infections and deaths and to meet its program goals.
Its epidemiological importance is illustrated by World Health Organization Prevention of Tuberculosis includes better living conditions, proper nutrition, and positive health practices” (Fogel, 2015, p.530). Positive health practices include covering nose and mouth when coughing and frequent hand washing. Bacille Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine tends to be given in other countries. Tuberculosis is known as one of the main causes of mortality in the world. This communicable disease is a serious public health conundrum. “The disease still puts a strain on public health, being only second to HIV/AIDS in causing high mortality rates” (Matteelli, Roggi, & Carvalho, 2014, p.
Promote for positions and laws to lead control of TB in local, state, territorial levels.
Education can be a powerful weapon in fighting tuberculosis in the United States also around the world. Today, it is encouraging how so many people know how TB contracts human and what cause drug resistant effects among those who are under TB treatment.
Luckily however, South Africa has the most active surveillance of antibiotic resistance of any other African country (SAMJ, 2011), so this country has a strong fighting-chance in stopping ‘the rise of the Superbug’. The South African government must take drastic measures in promoting effective antibiotic use as we cannot revert to a Pre-WW2 scenario of non-effective antibiotics!
Diseases can be defeated or endured, if they are embraced. Denied or feared, they can grow and make it drudgery for scientists to manage. For years, South African mortality rates have escalated due to the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance.
In the modern day, Tuberculosis is almost exclusively a threat to third-world and developing nations. It is hard, as members of a modern, industrialized nation, to understand TB's force and its worldwide ramifications without having done research of some sort on the disease. As Americans, the people of this country are almost absolved from feeling any affects of the disease whatsoever. It was not always this way.
Walensky, R. . P. et al. (2008). Scaling Up Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa:. JID, 197(9), pp. 1324-1332.
Statistics have been show a frightening increase in AIDS/HIV cases. As of the year 2012, South Africa has had the most cases of HIV/AIDS coming to a total of 6,070,800 ("Country Comparison :: HIV/AIDS”). This is a huge contributing factor to this conspira...
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is caused by bacteria that belongs to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Although Tb can affect other parts of the body, it mainly attacks the lungs (pulmonary) (Dye et al. 1999).What makes TB dangerous socially is that its pulmonary form is infectious and can be spread through contact of the infectious droplets. The most widespread mechanism of Tb spread is the cough. However, the infection spread requires prolonged contact with a patient and mostly the members of the same household are at risk. The issue of TB has lingered for years and continues to be a major public health problem within England, Tower Hamlets especially (Department of Health, 2010). The most reported cases of TB in the United Kingdom are in London and the more deprived boroughs around it. The rise in TB cases in the area of Tower Hamlets was seen mainly in the non-UK born residents, particularly those with origins from areas with high TB incidence like Sub-Sahara Africa, Indian Subcontinent and East Europe). Another group with high prevalence is the socially disadvantaged and included the homeless, drug users and prisoners (NHS, 2012).
The 1.7 HIV-related deaths a year and 990 thousand deaths from tuberculosis is an urgency
Tuberculosis in the 1980s were evident through the several years of rising case accounts to its highest point in 1992 this is alarmingly high because the disease travels through the air. As a result, it affects more people, worsening the impact of this disease. It also the impact the lack of education; corrupt living conditions, famine, deprived usage of health care, shortage vaccination charges and poor treatments all contribute to high tuberculosis cases consequence affecting thousand deaths.
Africa is a region of the world often associated with HIV due to the infection’s enduring prevalence on the continent. Specifically, Sub-Saharan Africa is the area of the world with the most infected individuals, approximately 26.6 million with roughly 1.4 million new infections each year (Bowler; White). This equates to 2/3 of all HIV infected individuals around the world. In this region it is harder to obtain treatment than in other areas of the world, with only 41 percent of people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa having access to ART (“Data”). A subset of Sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest epidemic rate is Southern Africa, which consists of nine countries. Table 1 lists the countries in Southern Africa and shows
This book covers a wide range of subtopics on the issue of HIV and AIDS prevalence in South Africa. The authors provide information in a neatly organized way that allows readers to easily find the information they are looking for. The book is divided into 7 sections with multiple chapters in each section. The sections are as follows: Birth of a rapidly growing epidemic, The virus, the human host and their interactions, HIV risk factors and prevention strategies, Focal groups for understanding the HIV epidemic, the impact of AIDS, Treating HIV, and What does the future hold? Sections 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 will provide good background information on my topic for my paper.
Wines, M. 2007. Virulent TB in South Africa may imperil millions. New York Time. January 8. Accessed online at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/world/africa/28tuberculosis.html?pagewanted=all
Active tuberculosis only develops in about 10% of infected persons, remaining dormant in the rest; although the latent infection may later progress to active disease years later, especially in immune-compromised individuals. 9 Infection by MTBC may involve any organ of the body, but clinical presentation is most common in the lungs (pulmonary TB). General symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue and severe cough with bloody sputum (hemoptysis) which may lead to death if untreated. 10 Mortality rates without treatment are high: in a study of natural history of TB in HIV-negative patients, 70% died within 10 years. 11 Tuberculosis remains a major health problem in the world...