Today is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, a time for investing in resources to protect and maintain TB care and support services for people in need across regions and countries.

Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 79 million lives since 2000 but the lung disease remains the world’s deadliest infection, affecting over 1 million people annually, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO released figures estimating that close to one-quarter of the world’s population or almost 2 billion people are infected. TB kills one person approximately every 21 seconds, it added. 

“The huge gains the world has made against TB over the past 20 years are now at risk as cuts to funding start to disrupt access to services for prevention, screening and treatment for people with TB,” warned Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

What is TB?

Caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, TB is a highly infectious pulmonary disease that can damage other parts of the body aside from the lungs, according to the MakatiMed Blogs.

There are two types of TB: active and latent. Symptoms of the active disease are extensive coughing that lasts more than three weeks, pain in the chest, blood-tinged phlegm or sputum, weakness and general fatigue, unintended weight loss, loss of appetite, fever and chills, and cold sweats in the evening.

In latent TB, the bacteria is present in the body but without symptoms and cannot spread to others. Someone diagnosed with TB can infect up to 15 people with an active version or a latent one. 

The treatment duration for TB is six months, particularly for the multidrug-resistant type or MDR-TB. The Department of Health, however, has rolled out a four-month treatment regimen for the non-MDR-TB.

MDR-TB occurs when the antibiotics used to cure the disease are misused or mismanaged: Patients failing to complete the duration of TB treatment; doctors prescribing the wrong dosage or duration of treatment; taking poor quality antibiotics; and unavailability of the complete set of drugs used to treat the disease.

Because of these reasons, the bacteria mutate and become slightly more challenging to treat. On average, MDR-TB takes two years to cure and requires a stronger set of antibiotics. A person also has the risk of developing MDR-TB if they have had active TB in the past. 

Concerted action

On World TB Day, WHO calls on everyone — individuals, communities, societies, donors and governments — to do their part to end TB. Without concerted action from all stakeholders, the TB response will be decimated, reversing decades of progress, putting millions of lives at risk and threatening health security.

For DoH, its regional offices are promoting early diagnosis by offering free X-ray screening of suspected cases in partnership with charity groups. The DoH Region 5 marked World Tuberculosis Day by screening 981 individuals for the disease on 15 March.

For its part, private hospitals like the Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed) emphasizes the importance of reaching out to their specialists for the appropriate management of the airborne disease. The hospital offers comprehensive services for the diagnosis, treatment and management of the disease. It is equipped with advanced imaging services such as CT scans, which can help assess the extent of TB in a patient. Additionally, its Pathology and Laboratories Department offers a wide range of high-quality laboratory tests to aid physicians in diagnosing and managing TB cases.