Tuberculosis

[Douger]

Fourth would stuff.
I DO have a problem with white fly.
The problem has been solved.

 

[waltky]

Europe getting to be a hotbed for DR-TB...

WHO: Alarming Rise in Drug-Resistant TB in Europe
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 - The World Health Organization is reporting what it calls an alarming and dramatic rise in the number of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Europe.

WHO regional director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab calls TB an old disease that never went away and is now evolving with a vengeance. Tens of thousands of new cases are being reported every year in Western and Eastern Europe.

The WHO says it has developed a new action plan to help fight the disease. The plan includes emphasizing the need for doctors and patients to be more aware of the symptoms of TB to ensure a speedy diagnosis. It also says patients' failure to properly take their medications has helped strains of drug resistant TB to develop.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacteria that destroys lung tissues. It is highly contagious and easily spread by coughing.

Source

 

[waltky]

Tuberculosis rates falling...

'First ever' fall in global TB
11 October 2011 - The number of people falling ill with tuberculosis has declined for the first time, according to the World Health Organization.

New figures show the global death toll has also fallen, to its lowest level in a decade, with major headway made in China, Brazil, Kenya and Tanzania. But the WHO warns that a lack of funds threatens progress, especially in relation to multi-drug resistant TB. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there was no cause for complacency.

According to the WHO, the figures represent a significant milestone in the battle against a disease that infects one third of the world's population, although only a small proportion become sick as a result. The number of people who died from tuberculosis peaked at 1.8 million people in 2003; by 2010 this had declined to 1.4 million.

Challenges ahead

Spectacular progress was made in China, said the WHO, where the death rate fell by almost 80% between 1990 and 2010. In Kenya and Tanzania there has also been a substantial decline in the last decade after a peak linked to the HIV epidemic. "This is major progress. But it is no cause for complacency," the UN Secretary-General said in a statement.

"Too many millions still develop TB each year, and too many die. I urge serious and sustained support for TB prevention and care, especially for the world's poorest and most vulnerable people." Money is the key to the current progress, said the WHO, particularly domestic funding in larger countries like Brazil.

But the organisation warned that substantial challenges lie ahead, with a projected gap in funding of $1bn for 2012. Another problem is the multi-drug resistant form of the disease. A new rapid test is revolutionising diagnosis but there is a concern that only a small percentage of the people diagnosed with multi-drug resistant TB are receiving treatment.

BBC News - 'First ever' fall in global TB

 

[waltky]

areaden: is still a problem, especially in the AIDS community.

Granny says, "Take yer vitamins - but not too much of `em...

Study: Vitamin D is Powerful Weapon Against TB
October 14, 2011 - Helps trigger mechanism that kills bacteria

Vitamin D plays a critical role in fighting infection and now scientists say that it may be a powerful weapon against tuberculosis. In a study reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers studied how T-cells - a kind of white blood cell that fights infection - are especially effective against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. It’s known that people with low vitamin D levels are more susceptible to infection. It’s also known that people with reduced immunity - like those with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS - are more susceptible to tuberculosis.

Robert Modlin, chief of dermatology at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine and study co-author says the researchers examined that connection. “And through that, we discovered that one particular type of T-cell, the one that secreted a protein called interferon-gamma, was able to activate white blood cells that were infected with the tuberculosis bacteria to then kill the bacteria.” But Modlin says it required vitamin D. “People that had low levels of vitamin D in their blood were unable to mount this mechanism and kill the bacteria.”

In lab experiments, scientists supplemented blood samples that were deficient in vitamin D. That activated the T-cells to destroy the TB bacteria. Modlin says the findings could lead to new therapies using supplements to prevent TB or help in its treatment. “I think it could change how we think about vitamin D supplementation.” The paper also notes that while the skin absorbs vitamin D naturally from the sun, it takes more exposure for African Americans to reach the same level of vitamin D as white individuals.

But too much sun can lead to skin cancer. So Modlin recommends supplements over sun exposure, while cautioning that high doses can be toxic. “I recommend that people consult with their internal medicine doctor and perhaps have their vitamin D levels measured if they think that’s appropriate and institute the right supplementation for them.” Modlin says the next step is to initiate clinical trials to learn whether vitamin D supplements can augment resistance to tuberculosis or other infections.

Source

See also:

Vitamin E Linked to Higher Prostate Cancer Risk
October 14, 2011 - Effect lingers even after men stop taking popular supplement

A new study finds a link between vitamin E - a popular dietary supplement - and an increased risk of prostate cancer. In 2001, scientists launched the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), to test the widely-held belief that the two supplements might help or prevent disease. Analysis from studies on skin and lung cancers had suggested that the mineral supplement selenium or vitamin E might reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

The study enrolled 35,000 healthy men, 50 years or older, at 400 sites in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic says the $122 million dollar trial ended in 2008 when it became clear that it would not produce the 25 percent cancer reduction it was designed to show. “We did notice however at the time the original study was closed that men who were taking vitamin E alone were trending toward having a higher risk of prostate cancer.”

Updated findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association show, no benefit for men who took the 400 International units of vitamin E a day and more importantly, says co-author and National Cancer Institute prostate cancer expert Howard Parnes, a real risk. “At this time the data show a 17 percent increase in prostate cancer, which is statistically significant for the vitamin E alone.”

Researchers followed post-study participants for 18 months after SELECT was halted. Klein, who also contributed to the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says the researchers found vitamin E can have an effect even after the men stopped taking the supplement. “There just doesn’t seem to be a reason to be taking vitamin E if you are a man over 55 or 60.” Klein adds that the study underscores the importance of large-scale, population-based, randomized trials to accurately measure the benefit or harm of micronutrients such as diet supplements.

Source

 

[earlycuyler]

Working at their own risk

By LINN E. CAROLEO
Apr 27, 2005

Farm workers often labor in fields sprayed with potentially harmful pesticides.

But that may be the least of their worries, says a Yuma physician who has cared for them.

"Things that one may expect migrant workers to suffer from, like sunstroke or pesticide poisoning, happens a lot less than one would think," said Dr. Steven Anderson. "I used to see more musculoskeletal injuries, like back pain, because what they do is really back-breaking work. And there were also some acute injuries, like people cutting themselves with lettuce knives and such.

"Really, the more serious issue is that there are higher incidents of tuberculosis in this population and that spills over into the Yuma health system," he added.

The Center for Disease Control says the risk for tuberculosis among migrant workers is estimated as being six times greater than in the average U.S. population.

"People who share the same air with an infectious person for long periods of time are at risk of becoming infected. This includes persons living in the same household with the infectious person and those who travel in the same vehicle," said Anderson.

http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_16283.php

Drug resistant TB is a big problem in our jails to.

 

[waltky]

DR-TB hits No. Korea...

North Korea Struggling to Fight Epidemic of Drug-Resistant TB
November 11, 2011 - North Korea is grappling with a strain of the deadly lung disease tuberculosis that is resistant to conventional treatment. Humanitarian workers say the impoverished communist country, which already has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis outside of sub-Saharan Africa, is unable to cope with the outbreak. Most victims could die of the disease within years. But some help is coming from an outside foundation.

TB, resistant to treatment

The disease is known as multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. It resists treatment by the two most powerful front-line TB drugs. Stephen Linton, chairman of the Eugene Bell Foundation in Seoul, recently returned from North Korea, which he has visited nearly 70 times for humanitarian work since 1979. "North Koreans have told me that tuberculosis is their number one, number two and number three primary public health concern," he said.

Conditions in North Korea are ideal for the spread of TB. The climate is cold. Most citizens live and work in small spaces, and lack proper nutrition to maintain a strong immune system. Linton says his foundation is now primarily focused on combating the multi-drug resistant TB outbreaks in North Korea. It is treating 600 patients in the country at a cost of two thousand dollars annually per case. It is an intense multi-year regimen of several second-line drugs that produce severe side effects.

Grim prognosis

Linton says the prognosis is grim for those who cannot get access to the expensive program. "It's the fate of a resistant patient anywhere who doesn't get medication. I think their average life expectancy would be no more than five years. To make matters worse, there's a very good chance that they would pass this resistant form of TB on to their families, to their co-workers, whoever comes in contact with them," he noted. "So it becomes not only a personal tragedy but a serious social problem at the same time." Linton, who suffered himself from TB as a child in South Korea, says it is difficult to know how widespread the epidemic is in the North.

"I don't think anybody knows because the primary research hasn't been done. And all we're doing is looking at it through these keyholes of six different institutions. But, for instance, the North Koreans can identify patients that they suspect are MDR. And when we test them 95 to 98 percent are MDR. They have enough patients already on waiting lists to double this program," said Linton. "So I would imagine that MDR patients in the thousands would be quite easy given their present situation." As a South Korea-based American citizen devoted to assisting ill North Koreans, Linton tries to avoid the political sensitivities in all three countries that affect the aid flow. But his foundation does insist on visiting any facility in North Korea to which it provides assistance.

Empowering caregivers

See also:

Study Says Tobacco Smoking Fuels TB Epidemic
November 09, 2011 - A recent report from the World Health Organization noted that for the first time, the number of people falling ill and dying from tuberculosis is declining. But with nearly one fifth of the world's population today still smoking tobacco, and with millions more exposed to second-hand smoke, progress against TB could be undermined. That's the conclusion of a new study that predicts smoking will contribute to an additional 34 million TB deaths by 2050.

The World Health Organization's efforts to control the spread of tuberculosis have focused mainly on detecting and treating active TB infections around the world. Far less effort has gone toward addressing the causes of this highly contagious respiratory disease. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes the campaign against this global killer would be strengthened if we understood more clearly why people get sick with TB in the first place. “Despite our control efforts - you still have more than a million people each year dying from TB and millions and millions getting infected. We realize that it's still a very important problem. So we have to do the practical thing (treating people) and we have to do the fundamental research things at the same time,” Fauci said.

A new study of the worldwide TB epidemic by researchers at the University of California in San Francisco concludes that tobacco use, which by itself is a major public health concern, is also an important factor that's working against TB control efforts. “What this paper shows is that there is a false dichotomy, that you can’t control tuberculosis if you don’t control tobacco use,” said Dr. Stanton Glantz, co-author of the study and director of the University of California's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. He and his colleagues note that smoking does not cause tuberculosis. TB is caused by a bacterium. But smoking depresses the immune system and makes it more likely that a person with a latent lung infection will develop an active and potentially deadly case of TB. “It (first- and second-hand smoking) increases the number of people who will get tuberculosis by about 7 percent. It increases the number of people projected to die from tuberculosis between now and 2050 by about 26 percent,” Glantz said.

Glantz believes his study, the first to identify this direct link between tobacco use and TB infection and mortality rates, should be of great interest to health policy makers and those guiding TB control programs. “Bottom line: if you want to control the infectious disease of TB, you have to control the tobacco industry and the tobacco industry’s efforts to increase tobacco use, particularly in developing countries where TB is a big problem,” Glantz said. Dr. Glantz's study predicts that in parts of the developing world where TB is already endemic, the situation will get worse if tobacco companies continue to expand their markets. It concludes that aggressive tobacco control measures will enable these countries not only to curb the emphysema, heart disease and lung cancer associated with smoking tobacco, but also to avert the millions of additional deaths from tuberculosis.

Source

 

[michaelkervins]

TB is one of the biggest disease just like AIDS. TB causes by smoking cigarette, chewing tobacco and other tobacco made things. It is very injurious for health. Now there are less patient of TB but still we want to get end of this disease.

 

[lizzie]

The Center for Disease Control says the risk for tuberculosis among migrant workers is estimated as being six times greater than in the average U.S. population.

http://sun.yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_16283.php

The bolded is because they are migrant farm workers, not because they do that type of work. There's been a huge resurgence of TB in this country with the large numbers of illegals we have been taking in over the past 20 or so years. They are bringing the TB with them, not acquiring it due to chemical exposure.

 

[lizzie]

TB causes by smoking cigarette, chewing tobacco and other tobacco made things.

Not true. It's caused by exposure to an infectious organism.

 

[Political Junky]

TB is not the only disease that is on the upswing do to unvaccinated people. Pertussis, whopping cough is another one on the up swing.

Luckily people are getting the pertussis vaccine.

 

[waltky]

New DR-TB strain found in India...

India reports new TB strain resistant to all drugs
January 16, 2012 | Indian doctors are reporting the country's first cases of "totally drug-resistant tuberculosis," a long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease.

It's not the first time highly resistant cases like this have been seen. Since 2003, patients have been documented in Italy and Iran. It has mostly been limited to impoverished areas, and has not spread widely. But experts believe there could be many undocumented cases.

No one expects the Indian TB strains to rapidly spread elsewhere. The airborne disease is mainly transmitted through close personal contact and isn't nearly as contagious as the flu. Indeed, most of the cases of this kind of TB were not from person-to-person infection but were mutations that occurred in poorly treated patients.

Read more: India Reports New TB Strain Resistant To All Drugs | Fox News

 

[whitehall]

You don't get TB from herbicides. You get TB from being exposed to an environment where TB exists. Arizona didn't infect migrant workers with TB. Migrant workers brought TB to Arizona.

 

[Againsheila]

TB is not the only disease that is on the upswing do to unvaccinated people. Pertussis, whopping cough is another one on the up swing.

There's a vaccine for TB?

 

[syrenn]

TB is not the only disease that is on the upswing do to unvaccinated people. Pertussis, whopping cough is another one on the up swing.

There's a vaccine for TB?

Yes, there is.

History of the Vaccine

The TB vaccine is a live, weakened bacterial vaccine made from the bacterium that causes TB in cows. It was first administered to humans in 1921. It has been given to 4 billion people worldwide and has been used routinely since the 1960’s in almost all the countries of the world, primarily in young infants. Changes in the TB bacteria over time have led scientists to create the different TB vaccines used throughout the world, and their effectiveness appears to be highly variable.

Tuberculosis Vaccine and Immunization Information

 

[Againsheila]

TB is not the only disease that is on the upswing do to unvaccinated people. Pertussis, whopping cough is another one on the up swing.

There's a vaccine for TB?

Yes, there is.

History of the Vaccine

The TB vaccine is a live, weakened bacterial vaccine made from the bacterium that causes TB in cows. It was first administered to humans in 1921. It has been given to 4 billion people worldwide and has been used routinely since the 1960’s in almost all the countries of the world, primarily in young infants. Changes in the TB bacteria over time have led scientists to create the different TB vaccines used throughout the world, and their effectiveness appears to be highly variable.

Tuberculosis Vaccine and Immunization Information

I'm confused, then why did I have to take those pills for a year when my TB test came out positive? Why didn't they just give me the vaccine before I went to Mexico all those years ago?

 

[syrenn]

There's a vaccine for TB?

Yes, there is.

History of the Vaccine

The TB vaccine is a live, weakened bacterial vaccine made from the bacterium that causes TB in cows. It was first administered to humans in 1921. It has been given to 4 billion people worldwide and has been used routinely since the 1960’s in almost all the countries of the world, primarily in young infants. Changes in the TB bacteria over time have led scientists to create the different TB vaccines used throughout the world, and their effectiveness appears to be highly variable.

Tuberculosis Vaccine and Immunization Information

I'm confused, then why did I have to take those pills for a year when my TB test came out positive? Why didn't they just give me the vaccine before I went to Mexico all those years ago?

Good question.... do you if you have ever had he TB vaccine...as in did you ask if you had one? It could be it was assumed that you had had the vaccine and did not mention it to you.

 

[Againsheila]

Yes, there is.





Tuberculosis Vaccine and Immunization Information

I'm confused, then why did I have to take those pills for a year when my TB test came out positive? Why didn't they just give me the vaccine before I went to Mexico all those years ago?

Good question.... do you if you have ever had he TB vaccine...as in did you ask if you had one? It could be it was assumed that you had had the vaccine and did not mention it to you.

Oh please, I had to get the small pox vaccine before I went to Mexico and I'd had that many times. Do you really think they would have just assumed I had the TB vaccine? No, they gave me a tb test before I went and one when I came back, which turned out possitive and I ended up having to take pills for a year. No one mentioned a vaccine.

 

[koshergrl]

I've never heard of a tb vaccine. I've just heard of a tb test to determine if you have been exposed or not.

 

[syrenn]

I don't know... the vaccine has been around for a long time now.

 

[waltky]

Untreatable TB??...

Untreatable New Forms of TB Raising Alarm
January 24, 2012 - In the world of tuberculosis (TB) control, it is the worst-case scenario. Doctors in Mumbai, India, reported last month they are seeing a group of patients infected with what they called "totally drug-resistant" tuberculosis. Indian health officials are still investigating those cases, but untreatable strains of the bacterial respiratory disease have turned up before: in 15 patients in Iran in 2009 and in two patients in Italy in 2007. Public health experts responding and there is new hope some for new weapons against a disease that is killing 5,000 people every day.

The World Health Organization (WHO) lists 69 countries that have reported what is officially called "extensively drug-resistant" tuberculosis (XDR-TB). It's a form of the mycobacterium that, like the one reported in India, isn't killed by first- and second-line anti-TB injectable drugs. The WHO says at least 25,000 cases of XDR-TB are reported worldwide every year. Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general, views the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis with alarm. "Call it what you may, a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation," she said. Officials say drug-resistant TB has been a growing problem in countries such as India and China because patients are frequently misdiagnosed and often receive inappropriate or inadequate treatment with antibiotics. Misuse of these drugs increases the danger that the target pathogen will gradually develop resistance to them.

Dr. Neeraj Mistry, a public health physician, says surveys show that very few Indian doctors are actually treating TB patients with the right drugs for the right length of time. "The emergence of totally-resistant TB is a result of failed public health intervention strategies," said Mistry. "When we deliver ineffective treatment regimens and when we don't have full adherence and compliance to treatment, it enables the emergence of resistance within the individual." Experts say that with the current arsenal of drugs failing to hold the line against TB, the need for new drugs and compounds has become more urgent. Preventing TB through vaccination is one promising strategy. "The ideal would be to develop a vaccine that works in all age groups. Everyone from newborn through the elderly," noted Dr. Ann Ginsberg of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.

Ginsberg and her colleagues are running clinical trials on two TB vaccines they hope will provide long-lasting immunity to TB and stop transmission of the disease. If all goes as planned, she says, the vaccine will be ready by 2020. "The clinical development program for a TB vaccine is a very long process, and it's long because, first of all, it's the nature of the disease itself - people get infected with TB and often don't get sick for years," added Ginsberg. "So when you do a vaccine trial, you have to vaccinate people and watch them for years to see whether or not they will get the TB. So that makes these clinical trials very long." While the world waits for that TB vaccine, the WHO says a new line of TB drugs - fortified with a new class of potent anti-mycobacterial agents - could be available by the end of this year or early next.

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