You see that white fuzzy object in the centre Well, it consists of thousands of stars. Among these some are bigger than our sun and some are smaller. And there are many which can’t be seen by our naked eyes. Our solar system is made of sun at the centre with eight other planets revolving around it. And in the whole universe we know the only planet which has life – Earth! The living planet! Earth has life in many forms. Plants, trees, birds, animals live together interdependent on each other. Few feed on plants. Few animals feed on other animals.
Not to forget micro-organisms Life on earth started with it! So life on earth is pretty complex. But in all of these, human species stood aside of other living things. With its own intelligence man is the leader on this planet. Even though no species on the earth feeds chiefly on human flesh, there are many reasons which are catastrophic to man.
There is no way to say that intelligent Man is immortal and there are many ways in which human’s life comes to demise. TB is among the catastrophic diseases.
Tuberculosis, its symptoms and drug used
Tuberculosis has been present in humans since antiquity. mycobacteria cause serious diseases in mammals. TB is one of them and is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is contagious and airborne. Dr. Sawant who gave some information about it to me said, “It mainly affects lungs. If bacteria are detected in sputum it is categorized in category1. In some cases i.e. in category2 it also affects Pleura and intestine. These bacteria enter in body through air.” Infected person coughs and micro-organisms in droplets travel through air and if other person breathes in that air, he gets infected, said Dr. Sawant. On asking about why TB is called as disease of poverty he said, “Body resistance of poor people is not so good because of lack of nutrition”. What I think – may be the standard of living also major factor in spreading TB.
Various combinations of medicine – ethombutol, pyarazinamide rifampicin are given to patients according to his health condition. It takes around 6 months to recover from TB in some cases more than that.
Since 1995, 46 million people have been successfully treated and up to 6.8 million lives saved through DOTS and the WHO’s Stop TB Program.
India’s Revised National TB Control Program has made efforts for systematically engaging all care providers through a public-private mix DOTS and has developed guidelines for the involvement of NGOs.
Still the purpose is not served.
Mortality
TB is lethal disease. The number of people who died from TB fell to 1.4 millionin 2010, including three fifty thousand people with HIV, which means around 4 thousand deaths every day.
Being the largest country in Asia, India is the highest TB-burden country in the world and has contributed 25 percent of the estimated global TB cases in 2010.
There is need to take a note of important point – There is significant number of people who leave treatment without completing it.
Need of New Drugs
Multudrug resistance (MDR) TB and extreme drug resistance (XDR) TB are big problems in getting rid of this disease. Science Magazine reports why TB is hard to cure. Recently Down to Earth Magazine reported improved cure for TB.
So there is need of new drugs which would be very effective in short period of time. It should also be affordable as funds shown by WHO in this factsheet are so high.
Tb is more prone to poor people in developing nations, elevating the standard of living would help in solving problem.
We, humankind are blessed by nature/evolution to be the leader on this planet; it’s our moral responsibility towards society to leave no man behind. We have to be obliged to take every section of society with us to prosperity.
Vigyan Prasar and OSDD are organizing Youtube video competition on on “The Need of New Drugs for TB”. Last date of submission has been extended to 30th November 2012
My entry in competition is coming soon!
P.S.
Video by me and Aaditya Patil on Youtube is live now.
Paresh Mhetre's Blog 