The Tuberculosis Disease - Essay Example

The disease is spread by people who have the disease when they either cough, sneeze, spit, or talk. One sneeze can send about 40,000 droplets full of the infection. A person with the disease can spread it to 10-15 people a year with prolonged contact.
Tuberculosis is often a difficult disease to diagnose, because of how hard it is to grow the bacterium inside laboratory conditions. Various tests must be done, including x-rays, smears, cultures, skin tests, as well as a look at past medical history. New ways of faster more accurate types of detection of the disease are underway, hoping these quicker ways of detection can help with controlling the disease.
Treatment for the drug is given in the form of antibiotics. Long term these antibiotics are needed to clear the entire bacterium from the body and are often treated with a combination of antibiotics. However, there are risks involved when combining the different antibiotics, even though it is helpful to incase the bacterium becomes drug resistant to one of the antibiotics.

Conclusion:
Even with the fast-spreading nature of the disease, prevention is still underway. In 1993, the World Health Organization declared that the fast-spreading Tuberculosis disease was a global health emergency, and a global plan has gone into effect which aims to save lives from Tuberculosis between 2006-20015.
The prevention of Tuberculosis is split into two waves of attack. In the first wave, people who are known to have Tuberculosis are treated, and all people with immersed contact with that person are also found and treated.
The second step in preventing the spread of the deadly disease is vaccines. Vaccines are given to children; however, an effective vaccine is not available for adults. In some countries, vaccines is being required to be given to all children under the age of three to try to combat the rapidly spreading bacterium.
Several new methods of preventing the disease are also underway. One such vaccine, when combined with chemotherapy, can quicken the decline and removal of the disease from the body. Other various forms of different vaccines are also being researched, in the hopes that a stronger one can be found.
A disease with such a strong showing worldwide, with 2 billion people worldwide (2 million die from the disease every year), is a serious concern for everybody. Hopefully, with the prevention programs, as well as research on vaccines, a good treatment and vaccine program can be found, to help contain and stop the spread of this deadly disease. Read More