Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by a micro-organism called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Koch et al., 2018). It is majorly transmitted by inhaling air droplets from an infected person. The most commonly affected organ is the lungs. However, the disease can disseminate and affect other organs including the bones, lymph nodes, and spine. Most people who contract tuberculosis remain in the latent phase of the infection, not showing any symptoms unless they get infected with the active tuberculosis disease. Patients with the latent phase cannot spread the infection to other people. The pathogen spreads from one person to another via minute droplets emitted when a patient talks, coughs, or sneezes. The disease remains suspended in the air for some time. Therefore, anyone who enters the room can contract the disease. Over 2 billion people in the world get infected by tuberculosis. This statistic is equivalent to almost one-third of the world’s population.
Tuberculosis presents with classic symptoms. These symptoms include a persistent cough that lasts three weeks or longer, chest pain, blood-tinged sputum, fever, weight loss, night sweats that soak the patient’s clothes, and loss of appetite. The primary mode of transmission of the disease is through air droplets which are emitted when a person sneezes, coughs, or talks. The mycobacterium must be in its active phase to be transmitted from one person to the other. Some precautions can be taken to prevent one from getting infected with TB. People suffering from active tuberculosis should be isolated in a room, and healthy individuals should avoid getting into the room without face masks. Quick identification and treatment of active infection stop the spread of the infection. Ensure enough ventilation in a confined space for people suspected of suffering from tuberculosis.
Anti-TB drugs are used in the treatment of TB. For patients suffering from active tuberculosis, isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol are administered intensively for two consecutive months. This is followed by a continuous dose of isoniazid and rifampicin for four months (Suárez et al., 2019). Patients with multiple drug-resistant TB require a particular type of treatment. Patients with TB need to undergo treatments for an extended period to eliminate the pathogen from the body. In order to prevent reinfection, the entire cycle of medication must be completed. TB is one of the top ten causes of mortality worldwide (Furin et al., 2019). Among the infectious causes of death, it is the second most common cause after HIV/AIDS. Millions of people develop TB every year. In 2017, it was estimated that almost 1.3 million people who are HIV/AIDS negative were killed by TB infection, and among HIV/AIDS positive patients, only 300000 deaths were reported in that year. About 10 million people worldwide were diagnosed with TB in the same year, with 5.8 million men, 3.2 million women, and 1.0 million children (MacNeil et al., 2019).
All age groups and countries are affected by TB. It is estimated that 90% of these infections were among adults aged 15 years and above. Among that population, 9% were HIV positive, with Africa making up 72% of this population. Two-thirds were spread across eight countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and South Africa. These eight nations, including 22 others recorded in the WHO’s list, have the highest burden of TB. Tuberculosis epidemics vary from one nation to the other. Middle- and high-income countries suffer from more TB than high-income countries.
Tuberculosis is one of the diseases that cause a significant threat to public health hence the need to report it. The pathogen can spread from one person to another through air droplets emitted when a person coughs, talks, or sneezes (World Health Organization [WHO], 2022). Life-threatening complications arise when the disease is left untreated. These complications arise when other organs like the brain, spine, and bone are affected. For this reason, many countries have policies requiring healthcare providers to report tuberculosis cases. The reporting can help the concerned stakeholders devise ways of preventing and controlling the spread of infection. Reporting criteria for TB include reporting of diagnosed active infection and suspected latent infection. The reporting criteria, however, vary by jurisdiction. Active tuberculosis is defined by the presence of signs and symptoms associated with TB. In contrast, latent infection describes TB diagnosed in a person but does not present with signs and symptoms (Sundararajan et al., 2021).
Conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and grow old define what Social Determinants of Health are. Economic, social, political, and environmental factors determine the health of the people in the community. There is a close link between tuberculosis and social determinants of health. Poor people in the community with no access to water and proper housing are more prone to getting TB. This group of people lacks access to healthcare. They present with a weak immune system, making them more susceptible to contracting TB. Addressing the social determinants of health plays a crucial role in reducing tuberculosis infection rates. Epidemiologic triangle aids in health complications research. A better comprehension of the causes, symptoms, and transmission of infectious diseases is enhanced among students. Three components of the triangle include the host, agent, and environment (Rogers et al.,2018). Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of the infection. Human beings are the host of the pathogen in which replication occurs, and the environment represents the factors in the surrounding that facilitate the spread of the bacteria.
TB is a preventable and treatable disease, and ongoing efforts are required to reduce the spread of the disease. These efforts are targeted toward individuals at higher risk of getting infected. Refugees, homeless individuals, people living with HIV, and communities with a high burden of TB are targeted. Students, teachers, and other staff in schools are educated on the symptoms of TB and encouraged to seek medical treatment in case they notice these symptoms. A better understanding of the distribution of TB and the extent of its impact is provided by demographic data. This information provides the relevant agencies clues on how to prevent and control the spread of the disease. It can also be used to monitor if the interventions are effective. Additionally, its demographic data aids in the identification of areas that require additional resources to curb the spread of the infection.
Community health nurses play a crucial role in preventing tuberculosis at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. The nurses use intensive case findings to identify cases in the community and report them to the health department (Marks et al., 2019). They also analyze the data they have collected to develop trends that guide public health efforts to reduce the spread of TB. Primary prevention encompasses educating the public on the transmission and symptoms of TB and advising them to seek medical care. Secondary prevention includes the identification of individuals that have been exposed and are at risk of contracting the disease. Follow-up care for individuals that have been diagnosed with TB comprises tertiary prevention. Christian worldview enables the community health nurse to modify their approach to providing health care to their patients by treating each person with compassion, dignity, and respect regardless of his or her background and personal circumstances.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention is concerned with addressing tuberculosis. This agency collects data in the field and analyzes it to come up with trends that can be useful in understanding the epidemiology of the disease and guiding public health efforts. Healthcare providers, health departments, and communities receive technical assistance and support from the CDC that improves tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). One global implication of tuberculosis is the strain it puts on the economy. It reduces productivity and increases the healthcare costs of countries with a high burden of TB. Developing countries are the most affected due to their limited resources to control the disease. Governments of countries like China and India have made to control TB, and significant progress has been made to reduce the burden of tuberculosis.
References
Furin, J., Cox, H., & Pai, M. (2019). Tuberculosis. Lancet (London, England), 393(10181), 1642–1656. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30308-3
https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/infectioncontrol/TBhealthCareSettings.htm
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis
Koch, A., & Mizrahi, V. (2018). Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Trends in microbiology, 26(6), 555-556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2018.02.012
MacNeil, A., Glaziou, P., Sismanidis, C., Maloney, S., & Floyd, K. (2019). Global Epidemiology of Tuberculosis and Progress Toward Achieving Global Targets – 2017. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 68(11), 263–266. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6811a3
Marks, G. B., Nguyen, N. V., Nguyen, P. T., Nguyen, T. A., Nguyen, H. B., Tran, K. H., … & Fox, G. J. (2019). Community-wide screening for tuberculosis in a high-prevalence setting. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(14), 1347-1357. 10.1056/NEJMoa1902129
Rogers, B., Kennedy, M., Wiselka, M., Morris, T., & Venkatraman, N. (2018). Current recommended management of tuberculosis. Prescriber, 29(10), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.1002/psb.1709
Suárez, I., Fünger, S. M., Kröger, S., Rademacher, J., Fätkenheuer, G., & Rybniker, J. (2019). The diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis. Deutsches Aerzteblatt International, 116(43).
Sundararajan, S., & Muniyan, R. (2021). Latent tuberculosis: interaction of virulence factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Molecular biology reports, 48(8), 6181–6196. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06611-7
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