Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Acquisition of Pulmonary Tuberculosis - Research Paper Example

?Is There an Association Between Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Acquisition Of Pulmonary Tuberculosis? A Literary Review of the Student Course Name of the Professor Date of Submission Review of Literature Chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) is a leading cause of disability and in United States, it’s considered as one of the three major cause of mortality. Reports bared that there are already millions of people affected by COPD, though not transmissible but some of them are infected with this disease without medical knowledge on it and thus bereft with knowledge on how to go about with this disease for medication. This review of literature will discuss about the possible correlation of COPD to the acquisition of pulmonary tuberculosis. COPD is often diagnosed with middle-aged adults. Unlike tuberculosis, this disease isn’t transmissible. Experts opined that there is no available cure yet to the lungs and airway’s damage caused by COPD but treatments and change of lifestyle can slow down the advancement of the disease to help a person get a better health and sustain his active life (Blanc, Flazon, Fitzpatrick, Floyd, Garcia, 2010, p. 1). Medical experts explicated that an infected person will often have difficulties in breathing because the airways and air sacs could drop its elastic ability; the air sacs walls are destroyed; the airways thickened and are inflamed; or the airways produce more mucus than what it’s normally producing (Caballero, Torres-Duque, Jaramillo, Bolivar, Sanabria, 2012, p. 1) Often, COPD disease is prevalent among cigarette smokers and those predisposed to getting lung infections. Aside from difficulty of breathing, they cough a lot and produce deep wheezing and excessive amount of mucus, thus, tightened the chest and other symptoms (NIH, 2012; Crothers, Butt, Gibert, Rodriuez-Barradas, Crystal, & Justice, 2006, p. 1326). Family members who live with smokers are likely to get second-hand smoke and may acquire COPD or emphysema or chronic bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis is a situation where the lining of the airways is always irritated and inflamed and the lining begins to thicken because of the irritation and subsequent coughing. In emphysema, air sacs, which are found at the end of bronchial tubes, lose their elasticity and the walls where the oxygen and gas exchanges occur, break down and are destroyed. Airways can also get clogged over time, creating a very dangerous situation in breathing for people. In essence, at its worst example, people are suffocating to death (NIH 2012). As COPD affect the lungs, so its tuberculosis. Unlike COPD, tuberculosis is a contagious disease and the transmission could be airborne. Like COPD, if not cured, could lead to the early demise of patient. In similar context as that of COPD, the country is also plagued with numerous cases of tuberculosis that is estimated to have reached the population of 10 to 15 million people of infection. At a global scale, TB has already killed an estimated 1. 9 million people annually. Health experts reported that nearly a third of the global population is affected with pulmonary TB. Both COPD and tuberculosis affect the lungs and offer similar threats to the life of the person affected with it. Both are deadly, if not cured. As it paralyzes a person from taking an active lifestyle if not medicated, victims or those who choose to become victims of this illness will seriously impact their economic well-being and consequently become a social burden too. The stigma embed in tuberculosis could only be dealt when the family and the patient understood the need to undergo six months medication to mitigate the advancement of this disease. Health advocates professed that the only way to resolve this health concern is early detection and treatment to gain tuberculosis control. Based on statistical data of the World Health Organization, one-third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. The pandemic has reached an alarming figure of 8.7 million people under new cases of TB (13% co-infected with HIV) and there were already 1.4 million people that have died from TB, including those estimated one million deaths among HIV-negative individuals with tuberculosis too. WHO (2012) reported that TB is one of the top cause of mortality among women sector with “300 000 deaths among HIV-negative women and 200 000 deaths among HIV-positive women that are also infected with tuberculosis based on 2011 records (p. 1).” Although medication is distributed in nations of emerging economies and that there are already about 51 million people considered as treated for TB but prevention remained a challenged for high risk population, especially those living within urban developed zones where smog and air pollution is high—thus, contributing much to the illness of their lungs. WHO (2012) professed that there are efforts to curb the figures by the development of drugs for those undergoing medication that has reached the level of being TB-drug resistant (p. 1). Reports further bared that vaccines are developed and are yet under trials and laboratory review. Authorities are working about sourcing funds to add to the budget for TB medication. WHO (2012) pointed that there is a need of $ 8 billion per year for low and middle-income countries, including Africa. There remains a need to re-strategize anti-TB program and approach to encourage those with illnesses to come forward for medication (Bradfort & Daley, 1998, p. 157). COPD and TB diseases are a consequence of the advancement of this illness in the lung parenchyma. Both cause the destruction of pulmonary extracellular matrix (MMPs) that sustains the supposed normal condition of the lungs (Elkington et al 2006). MMPs is a natural enzymes uncontrollably degrades the pulmonary extracellular matrix. Research pointed that explicated the association of MMPs and that of structural lung damage caused by smoking cigarettes, akin to those persons infected with COPD (Gadkowski & Stout. 2008, p. 305; Rabe, Hurd, Anzueto, Barnes, Buist, 2007, p. 532). The studies were based on scientific comparison and analogies using sputum and bronchial washings. Further study bared that there is an association of TB to COPD is evidenced by the scaling level of enzymes MMPS viewed in COPD while TB is correlated with the destruction of lung parenchyma (Goodwin & DesPrez, 1983, p. 801; Remy-Jardin, 2008, p. 891). Others medical findings pointed that dyspnoea, cough and sputum and weight loss are evident among persons with TB and COPD. The thin line between COPD and TB as illness, require medical experts to seriously deal with specific symptoms and findings to ascertain that the illness is COPD or it has already transcended up to tuberculosis which may end at the breakdown of immune systems (O’Dempsey, McArdle, Morris, Lloyd-Evens, Baldeh & Laurence 1996, p. 1; Goodwin & DesPrez, 1983, p. 801). Tuberculosis is far more prevalent in developing worlds and along with this comes other respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia, COPD, and various strains of the flu, avian (H5H1) and swine (H1N1). Throw in COPD and HIV, and it now becomes a melting pot of illnesses that really cannot be cured, all of which attack the immune system when it is less than optimal (Kohli, Lo, Homel, Flanigan, Gardner, Howard et al. 2006). When diets and people’s bodies are healthy, there is less likely a chance that infections will take hold. But for those who have limited, unhealthy lifestyles and environments, there is very little hope of surviving for any great length of time and chances are, life will be pretty miserable trying to survive (van Zyl-Smit, Bunet, Pai & Yew 2010). What does come out of this picture is that smoking tobacco is a major culprit as the initiating factor towards a lower immune system and disintegration of the lungs where most of these diseases attack (Shang, Ordway, Henao-Tamayo, Bai, & Oberley-Deegan, 2011, p. 1240). Almost 80% of deaths from these diseases occur in developing countries. Changing lifestyle pattern is indeed a must. There is a need to upscale the campaign against smoking because it irritates mucus membranes in the throat and all the parts of the lungs, change cells over time, causes more irritations, and a continued state of rawness in fragile cells areas (Nuorti, Butler, Farley, Harrison, McGeer, Kolczak, 2000, p. 693; Gualano, Hansen, Vlahos, Jones, Park-Jones, Delyannis, 2008, p. 390). This could reduce oxygen’s presence in human physiological makeup and reduces the capacity of oxygen too to deal with wastes from blood streams and other organs. In a combination of where cells are in a constant state of irritation and add in poverty in surrounding environments, alcohol abuse and malnutrition, it is hardly a surprise that people get sick with diseases that affect the breathing systems (van Zyl-Smit et al., 2010, p. 693; Lawn, Afful, & Acheampong, 1998, p. 627; Leung, 1999, p. 307; Zuber, McKenna, Binkin, Onorato, Castro, 1997, p. 304). While COPD remained to consider as incurable while TB is advancing its treatment, both medical experts’ assistance and change of lifestyle could change their condition (Frieden & Sbarbaro, 2007, p. 407). This is the only opportunity for them to lessen or weaken the advancement of their illnesses (Lee, Lee, Lin, Shu, Wang, Lee, & Chao, 2012, p. 1). Changing residential zones in areas where there is less population and prevalence of TB is advisable too (Lee, Kim, Kim, Oh, & Lee, 2011, p. 268). Taking in vitamins, healthy food, and regular exercise will improve one’s immune system too. References Blanc, L, Flazon, D, Fitzpatrick, C, Floyd, K, Garcia, I et al. 2010, ‘Global Tuberculosis Control 2010,’ World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Bradford, WZ, & Daley, CL 1998, ‘Multiple Drug-resistant Tuberculosis,’ Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, vol. 12, 157-172. 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Global Tuberculosis Report, Who.int, p. 1 Retrieved: http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/gtbr12_executivesummary.pdf Zuber, PLF, McKenna, MT, Binkin, NJ, Onorato, IM & Castro, KG., 1997, ‘Long-term Risk of Tuberculosis Among Foreign-born Persons in the United States,’ Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 278, 304-307. Read More