The majority of the world's health care systems are doing a poor job of curing TB patients. WHO
estimates that fewer than 30 percent of all countries are beginning to follow the control policies
recommended by WHO and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. Without
question, the lack of effective TB control programmes around the world is the primary reason the TB
epidemic is out of control. Somalia has high Tuberculosis prevelance and there are no that many Tuberculosis treatment center.
People of all ages, all nationalities and all incomes can get tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that can damage a person's lungs or other parts of the body and cause serious illness.
TB is spread when people who have active untreated TB germs in their lungs or throat cough, sneeze or speak, and send their germs into the air. People who breathe these germs into their lungs can become infected.
People who breathe in TB germs usually have had very close, day-to-day, contact with someone who has the disease. That's why most people get TB germs from someone they spend a lot of time with, like a family member, friend or close co-worker.
You're not likely to get TB from someone coughing in the subway or at a restaurant. It is not spread by dishes, drinking glasses, sheets or clothing.
Having TB infections means that the TB germs are in the body but they are in an "inactive" state.
After TB germs enter the body, in most cases, body defenses control the germs by building a wall around them the way a scab forms over a cut. The germs can stay alive inside these walls for years in an inactive state. While TB germs are inactive, they can't do damage, and they can't spread to other people. The person is infected, but not sick. He/she probably won't even know that he/she is infected.
Thousands of Somalis have TB infection. For most of them, the germs will always be inactive.
Tuberculosis disease is a serious illness caused by active TB germs.
It is possible to get TB disease shortly after the germs enter the body if body defenses are weak.
It is also possible, even after many years, for inactive TB germs to become active when body defenses are weakened. This may be due to aging, a serious illness, drug or alcohol abuse, or HIV infection (the virus that causes AIDS).
When defenses are weakened and inactive TB germs become active, the germs can then break out of the walls, begin multiplying and damage the lungs or other organs.
If people with TB disease do not take their medication, they can become seriously ill, and may even die. But people with TB can be cured, if they have proper medical treatment and take their medication as prescribed.
Sometimes, TB germs are "resistant" to one or more of the TB medicines most often prescribed by doctors. When this happens combinations of other TB medicines are given to the patient. Drug resistant TB can take longer to cure than regular TB, but most patients can be cured.
Drug resistant TB develops when a person with active TB stops taking their medicine too soon, or if they have not been given the right TB medicine. A person with untreated drug resistant TB of the lungs or throat can transmit these resistant germs.
TB can attack any part of the body, but the lungs are the most common target. People with tuberculosis disease may have some or all of the following symptoms:
Sometimes, a person with advanced TB will cough up blood streaked sputum.
People with active TB disease may have only mild symptoms. They may be spreading their germs to others without even knowing that they have TB.
Usually, after a week or more of taking effective medication, most patients with TB disease will stop spreading germs. A doctor will test the patient and then decide when the patient is no longer contagious. Most TB patients live at home and can continue their normal activities as long as they are taking their TB medicine.
The best way to fight TB is to make sure that people who need medicine take it regularly. They include: