Tuberculosis in India: Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control

RUNNING HEAD: Infectious Disease
Infectious Disease
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System04092
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Infectious Disease 1
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Epidemiology.............................................................................................................................1
Infection, Prevention and Control..............................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

Infectious Disease 2
Introduction
The topic selected for the report is Tuberculosis in India. It is considered as the major health
problem in India and is remarked as the top 30 TB burden countries in the world.
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and usually attacks
the lungs and affects the other body parts. Tuberculosis in India is at a rising state because of
the pollution in the environment and many citizens in India are not able to afford the
treatment. The symptoms of TB include mucus, loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, weight loss,
and night sweats. The rationale for selecting the topic was the increasing burden of TB on
India. There are estimated 79000 multi-drug resistant TB patients each year. It is imperative
to make the population aware and create a desire for personalized care (TBFacts 2019). The
aim of the report is to describe the state of Tuberculosis in India and recommend the
measures to prevent it. The further paragraphs of the report will reflect upon the actions
taken by the Indian government to prevent and control the infection. It will cover the
challenges and the measures implemented to control the inflection and will conduct a
comparison of the level of inflection among different countries.
Epidemiology
Tuberculosis is considered as an infectious disease that majorly affects the lungs. This disease
is considered as the second biggest killer globally. This disease is infectious and affects 10-15
people who came close in the course of action. Tuberculosis is an airborne pathogen, which
spreads through the air from person to person. The tuberculosis is of two types Latent TB and
Active TB (CDC 2019). The latent Tb remains in the body in an inactive state and is no
contagious while the active TB causes symptoms and gets transmitted to other people. One-
third of the world’s population suffers from latent TB and has a 10 % chance to becoming

Infectious Disease 3
active TB. Tuberculosis mainly affects the lungs and if not treated it gets spread into the other
parts of the body. It affects the brain, bones, liver, kidney, and heart. It is the underlying
cause of 1.3 million deaths among human immunodeficiency virus positive people. In 2017 1
million children get infected from disease and became the leading cause of death of 2, 30,000
children. It mainly affects an adult group of people and 95% of cases and death are in
developing countries. Isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol are the medicines
which are used to treat the patients (TBFacts 2019). The doctors use a combination of
medicines to treat the patients and uses sputum spear microscopy test to diagnose the disease.
The disease is curable and treatable. Active TB is treated within 6 months of course by
providing 4 antimicrobial drugs under the supervision of the doctor. From the year 2000 to
2017, an estimated 54 million lives were saved. The rising state of Tuberculosis in India is
still a major concern. According to the ministry of health and family welfare 2.15 million
new patients were discovered in the year 2018 (Mcintosh 2018).