EDITORIAL - A persistent affliction

There’s a killer disease threatening the country, and it’s not caused by a new virus or flu strain. Tuberculosis has afflicted people worldwide for centuries, and treatments have been developed, stopping the disease especially if diagnosed early. But the TB bacteria keeps mutating into strains that are resistant even to the latest drug cocktails used for treatment.

Today the Philippines is a hot zone for TB – one of the 22 high-burden countries worldwide, and one of just four in the Western Pacific along with Cambodia, China and Vietnam. TB is the sixth leading cause of death in the Philippines, with 200,000 up to 600,000 Filipinos believed to have active TB. The disease is highly contagious and easily spread even by sneezing, and each TB patient can infect an average of 10 people.

The risk of infection intensifies when the disease goes undiagnosed, which is common in poor communities with no access to proper health care. And even when the illness is detected, poverty and the stigma attached to TB can prevent a patient from seeking treatment.

Health experts believe up to 80 percent of Filipinos have latent TB, although a healthy lifestyle can keep the disease inactive. In 2012, 8.6 million people worldwide were afflicted with TB, with 1.3 million fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. Over 95 percent of TB deaths are recorded in low and middle-income countries. TB is one of the top three causes of death among women aged 15 to 44. Children are also vulnerable, with 530,000 falling ill in 2012 and 74,000 dying of TB.

Death rates from TB have declined since 1990, but the risks persist especially with the emergence of strains resistant to multiple drug treatments. WHO officials believe that about 30 percent of the nine million people who develop TB every year are “missed” or are not diagnosed, treated and reported to national health authorities. Finding these missed cases is one of the priorities as World Tuberculosis Day is observed.