Medical and Health Documents

Every year, almost 9 million people develop tuberculosis and 3 million people die from the disease. More people are dying of tuberculosis today than ever before. In this ebook you will get guidelines for the control of tuberculosis through DOTS strategy in Pacific Island countries

Writer: Leopold Blanc, Dong Il Ahn, Carmine Diletto
Author: World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific

Sample

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. The main source of the infection is a person with TB of the lungs, usually a sputum smear-positive case, who coughs, sneezes or spits infectious droplets of the bacteria in the air.

Anyone who breathes in infected droplets is at risk of acquiring the infection and, later, 10% of infected people will develop the disease. Left untreated, a patient with TB of the lungs will infect between 10 and 15 persons a year. Without treatment, after five years, 50% of pulmonary patients will die. If poorly treated, TB patients become chronic cases that will live longer but spread the infection for a longer time with bacilli often resistant to one or more anti-TB drugs.

Therefore, once the decision to start TB treatment has been made, it is an absolute necessity to ensure that the patient completes the full course of treatment.

The treatment of TB for new cases consists of a two-month intensive phase and four-month continuation phase. For retreatment cases, the intensive phase lasts three months and the continuation phase five months.