Prevention and Cure

What is being done to counter this global emergency? The best way to control the disease is to detect and cure infectious cases at an early stage. This not only helps those who are already sick but also stops the spread of the disease to others.

When TB is left untreated, it kills more than half its victims. When properly treated, however, TB is curable in almost every case if it is not caused by a strain that is resistant to a range of drugs.

As we have seen, effective treatment requires that the patients complete the entire course of medication. Frequently, they do not. Why not? Well, cough, fever, and other symptoms usually disappear a few weeks after treatment starts. So, many patients conclude that they have been cured and stop taking the medicines.

To counter this problem, WHO promotes a program called DOTS, which stands for “directly observed treatment, short-course.” As the name suggests, health workers watch to make sure their patients swallow each dose of the medicines, at least for the first two months of treatment. Yet, this is not always easy to do because many of those afflicted with TB live on the fringes of society. Since their lives are often filled with turmoil and problems—some are even homeless—the challenge of regularly seeing to it that they take their medicines can be overwhelming.

EXPERTS agree that tuberculosis (TB) is a global problem that requires a global solution. No country can control TB in isolation, since millions of people cross international borders each week.

International cooperation, many believe, requires that wealthy nations help poor nations, which are hardest hit by TB. As Dr. Arata Kochi states, “it is in the interest of wealthy countries to help less-developed countries fight tuberculosis, before their own countries become the battleground.”

But rich nations, beset with what they see as more pressing priorities and problems, have not rushed to the rescue. Some poor countries themselves often neglect health care, pouring money into their armaments instead. By mid-1996, only 10 percent of the world’s TB patients were being treated with the DOTS strategy, too few to prevent the epidemic from worsening.

WHO observes: “The knowledge and inexpensive drugs to cure TB have existed for decades. What the world needs now is a breakthrough by people of power, influence and compassion who will see that these medicines are put to use effectively throughout the world.”