Tuberculosis – an infectious disease and a social problem that is detrimental to health and the economy of the whole country. The causative agent of tuberculosis is the bacterium Koch or Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis are resistant to various environmental factors: in soil, water, in residential premises, in some products (milk, butter, cheese) remain viable for about a year; in books – up to 4 months; in buried corpses – a few months; in street dust – up to 8-12 days, resistant to acids, alkalis, alcohols.
Direct sunlight and ultraviolet rays kill mycobacteria in a few minutes; heating to 70 ° – after 30 minutes; boiling – in 5 minutes.
Infection occurs:
- in most cases (up to 95%) through the respiratory tract: by airborne droplets from a sick person to a healthy person — when talking, coughing, sneezing, inhaling dust during the cleaning of the room where the bacilli carrier is disregarding safety rules;
- through damaged skin and mucous membranes, when smoking other people’s cigarettes, when kissing, when using dishes and toilet articles of a patient with tuberculosis;
- by eating unboiled or unpasteurized milk, dairy and meat products from animals suffering from tuberculosis.
Early diagnosis and timely treatment of tuberculosis are the key to complete recovery!
The discovery of the initial forms of tuberculosis is based on mass preventive examinations of the population (X-ray fluorography, Mantoux tuberculin test, in some cases, urine, sputum, etc.).
Risk factors are smoking, alcohol, drug use, malnutrition, overwork, hypothermia.
Tuberculosis prevention
Specific prevention of tuberculosis is based on the use of BCG vaccine in newborns who do not have contraindications and revaccination to clinically healthy, uninfected children, adolescents, draftees, students whose Mantoux test gives a negative result.
Radical TB prevention is to make the body immune, not susceptible to the disease!
Factors that strengthen the immune system and prevent the development of tuberculosis
body hardening and physical activity;- proper nutrition;
- personal hygiene;
- smoking cessation, drugs, alcohol abuse;
- timely detection and treatment of chronic and sluggish diseases;
- receiving, if necessary, vitamin complexes, especially in the spring;
- the creation of normal living conditions that meet hygienic requirements;
ability to overcome stressful situations.
Tuberculosis is a chronic disease, treated for a year or more subject to the implementation of all the recommendations of the doctor. Disease is easier to prevent than to cure.
Do not take risks!
Have regular chest X-rays, does not prevent the carrying out of inoculations and staging Mantoux tuberculin tests to their children!
According to the materials of the State Institution “Brest Zonal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology”