The World TB Day is observed globally on March 24 every year. TB is considered to be one of the most killer infectious disease in the world, so we should make ourselves more committed for the fight against Tuberculosis (TB), as this year’s slogan for World TB Day “Unite to end TB“ says it all.
There are many aspects of TB. Today I am going to highlight TB-HIV the most deadly combination wherein each disease causes deterioration and rapid progression of the other.
Nearly one third of the world’s population is infected by TB bacteria; only 10% have a lifetime risk of developing the active disease. People with poor living conditions, malnutrition, weaker immune systems have a greater risk of falling ill from TB. There are an estimated 9.2 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths reported due to TB.
HIV – once an individual is infected by this virus it gradually weakens the immune system of the person and makes him more vulnerable to multiple infections. The risk of developing TB is higher in HIV-infected persons so also the death rate is very high. HIV positive person develops TB faster than HIV negative person. The progression rate of TB disease is 10-30 times higher in HIV-infected person. TB is the common cause of death in AIDS patients.
The principles of TB control are same even in TB-HIV patients. DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short Course) are considered standard even in HIV positive TB patients. DOTS improve quality of life and the patients life span.
All TB patients should get themselves checked for HIV and all HIV positive patients should get themselves checked for TB.
TB can be treated successfully even in HIV infected patients. A patient suffering from TB-HIV should take his treatment of TB successfully (DOTS). RNTCP (Revised national tuberculosis program) is the nodal agency for implementation of DOTS treatment in our country. TB drugs used under DOTS have the same effect on HIV-infected people and can cure TB in course taken under direct observation. The National policy is to provide, RNTCP (Revised national tuberculosis program) drugs to treat new cases as well as re treatment cases in the form of Category-l and Category-ll drugs respectively.
Since there is an evident rise in TB-HIV cases globally, in a developing country like India, the potential extra burden of TB-HIV can be a difficult task to handle monetary wise and in the form of support systems because we have already seen the impact of this on countries heavily affected by TB-HIV epidemic.
As we all know now what impact TB-HIV can have on our country and over the world we all should make our fight against TB more stronger and spread the awareness of treatment as best as we can.
Though HIV is treatable but not curable, Tuberculosis is fully curable.
