Durban - On March 24 the world commemorated World Tuberculosis day with South Africa - which has among the world’s highest infection rate of the disease at the forefront of the fight.
A TB Prevalence Survey conducted in 2018 indicated that TB prevalence for all forms and all ages in South Africa in 2018 was estimated at 737 per 100,000 population. The germs usually destroy the soft tissue of the lungs, and this causes cavities in the lungs, resulting in difficulty with breathing, and blood can be coughed up. If untreated, TB can cause death.There is Pulmonary Tuberculosis; Pleural Tuberculosis; Skeletal Tuberculosis; Brain Tuberculosis; Bladder and Kidney Tuberculosis; Joint Tuberculosis; and Gastrointestinal Tract Tuberculosis.Multi-Drug Resistant TB is a specific form of TB that does not respond to “ordinary” TB treatment.
The second way that people can develop XDR-TB is by becoming infected from a patient who is already ill with the condition. Patients with TB of the lungs can spread the disease by coughing, sneezing, or simply talking. A person needs only to breathe in a small number of these germs to become infected. However only a small proportion of people infected with TB germs develop the disease.