Your grandparents may have called it ‘consumption.’ In medieval times, it was known as the ‘white plague.’ Evidence of it has been found in mummies and skeletons dating back thousands of years. Tuberculosis has been one of the most common and enduring diseases throughout history and despite great advances in detection and treatment, TB remains one of the world’s deadliest diseases. The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) joins the CDC and local health departments in recognizing March 24 as World TB Day.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease that spreads through the air. When infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit, they send TB germs, known as bacilli, into the air. A person only needs to inhale a small number of bacilli to be infected. Left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year, creating a reservoir for future TB cases. However, not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. As a result, two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB disease.
Persons with LTBI do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms, yet left untreated, five to ten percent will develop active TB disease at some point in their lifetime. Persons with latent TB infection are not infectious and cannot spread TB infection to others. Overall, one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with the TB bacillus. Every day, 20,000 people develop active TB disease and 5,000 die. Between 2002 and 2011, Iowa averaged 1,300 TB infections each year and reported 437 TB cases.
“TB is a good example of the global nature of public health,” said IDPH TB Control program manager Allan Lynch. “It is important to implement consistent and aggressive public health measures to halt TB disease, which left untreated, kills half of its victims.”
Early treatment cures TB disease by taking several antibiotics, typically for six to 12 months. It is very important that people who have TB disease finish the medicine, and take the drugs exactly as prescribed. If not all of medicine is taken, they can become sick again or if they do not take the drugs correctly, the germs that are still alive may become resistant to those drugs. The TB Control Program provides medication to all Iowans for the treatment of TB disease and infection. Consultation with county health departments, nurses and clinicians treating those with LTBI and TB disease is a primary focus of the program. For more information about TB and the Iowa TB Control program, visit www.idph.state.ia.us/ImmTB/TB.aspx?prog=Tb&pg=TbHome.
