Tuberculosis is one of the things people fear the least right now amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, but should we be more worried than we are? Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that mainly affects a person’s lungs causing them to have a cough, fever, chills, weight loss and many other symptoms. This disease is quite contagious and is spread through respiratory droplets from person to person. Tuberculosis can be either latent or active, and if latent, it can live in the body with little to no symptoms for many years before a person knows they have it. Over the years, it has developed resistance to many drugs so that now people must take multiple drugs at one time for approximately nine months in order to get rid of the disease and not cause any more resistance to develop.
It is always alarming for me to hear that a disease has a lot of antibiotic resistance because it makes me worry about what will happen with the number of infections we will see in future years. However, there are scientists that have this same worry and are constantly looking for new treatments. In October of 2019, a group of researchers made some new discoveries about this disease and have actually created a new antibiotic therapy method for TB. The article says, “In times of rising resistance of mycobacteria to the antibiotics in use and no effective vaccination against tuberculosis in place, the researcher provide an important basis for the development of novel antibiotics that target the assembly or function of the type VII secretion systems.” This is encouraging news for all of us! It is incredible to me that one little discovery about a disease or pathogen can have an enormous impact leading to a new therapy that could one day be used to more effectively treat this disease that takes so many lives each year.
So how is TB being handled today? In the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2019, they noted that prevention was one of the best methods to control tuberculosis. They said, “Prevention of new infections of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and their progression to tuberculosis (TB) disease is critical to reduce the burden of ill health and death caused by TB.” I’m sure the majority of us, as students, have been tested at least once for TB. Weird fact about me: I personally love getting TB tests. This is one of the many prevention methods that are in place when you begin a new job, travel to certain areas, or enroll in a university or other large institution. Other prevention methods include taking the antibiotics you are prescribed for the entirety of the time they are prescribed to you by your doctor if you are infected, creating infection control plans within hospitals and other offices, rapid diagnosing of the disease, improving room air ventilation, and the classic…wash your hands and do not touch your face.
So while Covid-19 is at the forefront of our minds right now, we cannot forget that there are other diseases taking lives each day.
Magnifying Microbiology 