On the occasion of

World TB Day 2004

Prepared by

Ethiopian Medical Students' Association
and the TB & Leprosy Control Team

Ministry of Health Ethiopia

March 24 2004.

What is TB?

TB is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB develops in the human body in 2 stages: the first stage occurs when an individual is exposed to M. tuberculosis and becomes “infected”, i.e. a healthy carrier of TB infection. The 2^nd stage is when an “carrier” develops the disease and falls ill.

Once considered as a disease of the past, TB has re-emerged in Africa, i.e. with more than 200 million people being healthy carriers of the TB bacteria. Each year, about 1.6 million new cases and over 600,000 deaths due to TB occur in Africa.

TB & HIV/AIDS co-infection

HIV & TB are a deadly duo. Each one speeds up the progress of the other. HIV destroys the body’s immunity and leaves the body defenseless against TB. It is the most powerful known risk factor for activating latent TB infection to an active disease. Hence, the largest increases of TB patients is  seen in sub-Saharan Africa, (including Ethiopia), where the prevalence of both TB and HIV infection is high. The HIV epidemic is largely responsible for the resurgence of TB and poses the greatest public health challenge in Africa.

TB in Ethiopia

Ethiopia, listed among the top 10 high burden countries of TB, has an estimated half of her adult population harboring latent infection with the bacteria. Without HIV up to 5 % of them will develop TB disease in their lifetime. From those who are also HIV infected, around 50% will develop TB disease within one year! Hence Ethiopia diagnosed and treated 110,000 TB patients in 2003. Without timely diagnosis and treatment more than half of TB patients will die.

TB             Poverty

TB strikes down the world’s most vulnerable people. In Africa, nearly three out of four TB victims are between the ages of 15 and 54, being the breadwinners in most families. When one dies, it makes a poor family even poorer. And a poor country like Ethiopia becomes more economically deprived when productive people perish due to TB. Thus TB breeds poverty and poverty breeds TB. To stop TB, the fight against poverty must be high on the agenda.

TB affects women and children

TB kills worldwide one million women per year, more than all combined maternal mortality. Children are the most vulnerable to severe forms of TB, such as the form that affects the brain or that disseminates into the whole body

Good News!

TB can be cured and prevented by using DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy for the detection of and cure of TB. DOTS (directly observed treatment short course) strategy requires that health workers observe daily TB patients taking their drugs for at least the first 2 months of therapy. This reduces the chance of patients interrupting treatment before they are cured of the disease. Interruption of treatment can lead to drug resistance developing in the patient, who can pass it on to others. Therefore, this year is critical for TB control, which requires social mobilization and effective communication at country level.