When it comes to disease prevention, people usually care about how to prevent tumors, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, myocardial infarction, etc. The fact is that these diseases either suffer from a large number of people or have extremely serious consequences.
However, Dr. Clove would like to talk about tuberculosis, an infectious disease that people seldom pay attention to at ordinary times.
Because the pathogenic bacteria, transmission route and prevention methods of tuberculosis are very clear, prevention is more targeted and the effect is usually better.
Is tuberculosis a what?
Tuberculosis is commonly known as [consumption]. Simply speaking, it is an infection caused by bacteria called [Mycobacterium tuberculosis], and most of them are infected by lungs, which is also known as tuberculosis.
People suffering from tuberculosis often suffer from low fever, fatigue, night sweat, cough, bloody sputum, weight loss, etc.
Another point is that tuberculosis, which excretes bacteria, is infectious and may be transmitted to others if disinfection and isolation are not paid attention to in life.
In history, tuberculosis was once called “white plague”. With the progress of modern medicine, tuberculosis has reliable prevention and treatment methods, but there is still a long and tortuous way to go before the goal of “ending tuberculosis”.
Perhaps the above introduction is not enough to attract everyone’s attention. Let’s take a look at a data released by the World Health Organization in 2015:
It is estimated that 13 million people worldwide suffer from tuberculosis, and 9.6 million new people suffer from tuberculosis every year.
In 2014, 1.5 million people worldwide died of tuberculosis, surpassing AIDS for the first time. In China, the number of patients is 1.2 million, with 930,000 new cases each year and about 38,000 deaths each year.
The elderly, diabetes should be more careful of tuberculosis
Some friends may say [since it is an infectious disease, I just need not contact people suffering from tuberculosis], which is reasonable, but the fact is that about one third of the people are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
However, being infected by tuberculosis does not mean suffering from tuberculosis. Only a small number of infected people eventually fall ill with tuberculosis.
The body’s immune function (commonly known as resistance) plays a very important role in it, while the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, AIDS patients, infants, immunosuppressant users and other special groups often have low resistance and are more likely to suffer from tuberculosis, so they should be more careful in prevention.
Here, I would like to remind friends suffering from diabetes that when blood sugar control is not ideal, the immune function of the body is inhibited and tuberculosis is more likely to be infected.
Studies have found that the prevalence rate of tuberculosis in diabetic patients is 2-4 times higher than that in non-diabetic patients, and the prevalence rate of tuberculosis with poor blood sugar control is 3 times higher than that in well-controlled patients.
To prevent tuberculosis, we should pay attention to these five points.
Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Prevention methods can be divided into two directions: stay away from Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Enhance one’s own immunity so that germs cannot infect oneself or will not become sick even if infected.
Step 1 Enhance your immunity
[Enhancing Autoimmunity] is a relatively general term. The following matters may not be specific to individuals, but we can follow this general principle:
- Maintain a healthy lifestyle, do not smoke, do not drink alcohol; Moderate exercise, 3-4 times a week, each time within one hour, Tai Chi, square dancing, swimming, walking and other forms of exercise suitable for the middle-aged and the elderly; Combination of work and rest, discontinuous overtime, stay up late; Balanced diet, not partial to food and not picky about food, to provide sufficient nutrition for the body; Friends suffering from diabetes must actively control their blood sugar, and those with other chronic diseases must actively control the primary disease.
2. Pay attention to disinfection and isolation to avoid infection.
For people with positive sputum smear, they should stop work, drop out of school, stay at home and avoid going to public places. When you have to go to public places, you should take the initiative to wear masks to prevent tuberculosis bacteria from spreading to others.
Home isolation should live alone in a room, often open windows for ventilation, it is best to have ultraviolet disinfection lamps, and regularly carry out air disinfection. Patients’ clothes, bedding and other articles are often exposed to the sun, tableware can be boiled for disinfection, sputum should be vomited in paper burning or disinfection, away from the elderly, children and other people with low resistance.
For crowded places, such as classrooms and dormitories, windows should be opened regularly for ventilation. It is best to wear masks when visiting tuberculosis patients or going to hospitals.
Effective disinfection and isolation methods can reduce the chance of healthy people being infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
3. BCG vaccination to protect children
Vaccination with BCG can prevent tuberculosis. Although BCG cannot completely eliminate tuberculosis infection, it can reduce the occurrence of tuberculosis. Even if infection occurs, the symptoms of the disease will be mild.
BCG vaccination for newborns is part of the planned immunization program. All newborns born in China have been vaccinated with BCG. However, for children born abroad, some countries do not vaccinate BCG. These children should go to the local disease prevention and control department for consultation after returning home to decide whether to replant BCG.
4. Active screening, early detection and cure of tuberculosis
When there is cough, expectoration for more than 2 weeks, accompanied by low fever, fatigue and other symptoms, must go to the hospital for tuberculosis screening. For colleagues or relatives and friends around the appearance of the above symptoms must also remind him to see a doctor as soon as possible, clear diagnosis, accept standard treatment.
For people at risk of tuberculosis, such as diabetics, patients using immune agents, organ transplant patients, AIDS patients and people who have close contact with bacteria excretion patients, tuberculosis should be actively screened regularly (once a year).
For patients themselves, early detection and treatment are better and have less impact on the body. At the same time, early detection and treatment can also reduce the risk of infection of healthy people around.
5. Be civilized and protect others
Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be transmitted through the air. When tuberculosis patients cough, sneeze and spit, they will spray tuberculosis bacteria into the air or even directly onto other people’s faces. This will increase the risk of tuberculosis infection and even tuberculosis in healthy people.
For tuberculosis patients who may be infectious, they should develop good hygiene habits, not spitting everywhere, not sneezing or talking loudly at people.