(This is a more detailed post about something I already covered. Here's the link: Tuberculosis: Something not enjoyable (prettymucheverythingplussome.blogspot.com) )
"I have received no assurance that anything we can do will eradicate suffering. I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolition of the slave trade, or prison reform, or factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice, or health, or peace. I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can."
-C.S Lewis
Ah, Tuberculosis. If you know me, you'll know that this is one of the most fascinating diseases in my humble opinion. That's why I'm writing another post about it.
Tuberculosis is related to Hanson's disease, more commonly known as leprosy. While leprosy isn't as contagious as it used to be, Tuberculosis is still as contagious as ever.
90% of the world population in the 1900s had the tuberculosis bacterium in them. That's almost everyone on the globe. Luckily, only 20% of that 90 will develop the active form of tuberculosis, while the rest will remain latent, with only a chance of becoming active.
The symptoms of tuberculosis are actually kind of simple. It causes weakness, weight loss, and fever.
The most common type of TB is Tuberculosis of the lungs, but there are many different types. It can infect your spine, brain, and a whole lot of others which are all equally terrifying.
Luckily, there is a partially effective vaccine. It isn't in circulation in the USA, but it's stock-pilled just in case. It's recommended to get it if you're traveling to a place where TB infections are common (IE: Russia, China, the Philippines, etc.) and there are antibiotics for it, but it takes 6-9 months to finish treatment. But you have to, or else an antibiotic strain of TB can come and wreck your immune system even more, which sounds not enjoyable in my opinion.
TB is less common in wealthy countries; the US only sees 20,000 cases per year.
Tuberculosis had a spike in cases in the 1980s, when the AIDs epidemic lowered people's immune systems, and let little ol' TB wreak havoc on everyone.
The CDC had aimed for the year 2020 to have TB completely eradicated, but as you probably know, 2020 had other plans.
Here is a Wikipedia page of all known famous deaths of TB: List of tuberculosis cases - Wikipedia. The amount of death from this disease is remarkable. But I have hope that one day if we can get our act together, we can eradicate this dreadful disease.
Comments
Post a Comment