TUBERCULOSIS RESOURCES
How Tuberculosis Spreads (video)
The Scientist - Infographic: TB Vaccines in the Pipeline Take Varied Approaches
The Scientist - Tuberculosis: The Forgotten Pandemic
Updated WHO Information Note: Ensuring continuity of TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic
WHO - Information Note: Tuberculosis and COVID-19
MSF - COVID-19: Avoiding a ‘second tragedy’ for those with TB
we are TB - The impact of COVID-19 on the TB epidemic: A community perspective
Stop TB Partnership - EXECUTIVE BRIEF: Key Findings and Calls to Action
Stop TB Partnership - Civil Society Report on TB and COVID
Stop TB Partnership - COVID-19 Response Mechanism
Stop TB Partnership - STATEMENT ON BCG VACCINATION AND COVID-19 New Tools Working Groups
DevPolicy Blog - Progress towards ending TB at risk
The Global Fund Issues New Guidance in Response to COVID-19
Path - Leveraging the COVID-19 response to fight tuberculosis in China
PEPFAR - Technical Guidance in Context of COVID-19 Pandemic
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Read the full description of tuberculosis here:
WHAT IS TUBERCULOSIS
Tuberculosis (also known as “TB,” “TB disease” or “active TB”) is an airborne, contagious disease caused by a bacterial infection. Without proper treatment,up to two-thirds of people with TB disease will die. A person with TB disease has symptoms that can include intense coughing, significant weight loss, fatigue, fever, and night sweats. People with advanced stages of the disease can cough up blood and small pieces of lung tissue. When a person with TB disease coughs, the TB bacteria exit the body through the mouth and are expelled into the air. The bacteria can survive suspended in the air for hours, during which time people breathing that air can inhale them and acquire TB infection.
Because TB disease is a contagious airborne illness of public health concern, all states require suspected and diagnosed cases of TB disease to be reported to state health departments. These reports are forwarded without identifiers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the CDC, an estimated 11 million people -- roughly 1 in 24 people -- in the U.S. today are living with TB infection.
SUMMARY
Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease that requires long and complex treatment with several antibiotics. People can live with TB infection for years—even decades—without symptoms before developing active TB disease. Millions of Americans are living with TB infection: one in 24 people inthe U.S.Recognizing people’s right to know their TB status, this paper calls for a more robust national response focusing on diagnosing and treating TB infection in order to prevent future cases of TB and to stop its transmission.
Who is most at risk?
- Adults and children who have had contact with someone who had pulmonary TB (TB disease affecting the lungs)
- Younger individuals, despite normal health, have a greater life-time risk of TB – 6% at age 20 years compared to 3% at age 50 years.
- People living with an illness or health condition that weakens the immune system, including: people living with HIV infection, patients initiating anti- tumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment, patients receiving dialysis, patients preparing for organ or bone marrow transplantation, patients with silicosis, and diabetics from countries where TB is highly prevalent.
- Health-care workers
- Homeless persons
- Immigrants from countries that have high burdens of TB
- Illicit drug users
- Incarcerated persons
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