By some estimates, 2 billion people are now infected worldwide, and in 2019, around 1.4 million people died from it.
It’s a pandemic infection, spread through the air — but it’s not COVID. It’s tuberculosis (or TB). Yet we’re not in lockdown for it. And we’re not queuing up for a vaccine.
Some people call TB “the forgotten pandemic”. But our knowledge of one pandemic is helping us manage the other.
TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. And COVID is caused by SARS-CoV-2, a virus. They’re quite different microorganisms. But it’s easy for them to overlap in people’s minds.
Both TB and COVID are infectious diseases that generally affect the lungs. Both are passed between people mainly by aerosols, when infected people cough, sing or otherwise release them into the surrounding air.
I remember when TB hospitals or sanatoriums were full of patients and the only treatment that seemed to be given was to push the beds out into the fresh air no matter how cold it was. 😮
Unfortunately the antibiotic resistant strain has now been brought into the country from third world countries. It is now quite bad in some areas in London.
Yes I used to work in east London and lots of issues there with TB. When I got first dose of pleurisy which wouldn’t clear up I was tested for TB because of where I worked. Which thankfully was clear.
That was me 1937 - 1950...💉thankful for penicillin that came after the war.Got COPD now - surprising how many inhalers advise not to use if you have ever had TB - but my doc believes the benefits outweighs the risks..
Diphtheria is still inoculated against along with tetanus and polio as babes in stages and as far as I'm aware scarlet fever mostly affects children and is treated with antibiotics.
And the more migrants that arrive on our shores, the more at risk our country becomes. This has always concerned me about the migrant population and what they could eventually infect us with.
When my family emigrated to America some 28 years ago we all had to go down to London and spend a day at a facility having blood tests and chest X-rays to make sure we had no health issues that we could transmit to the US. We were told TB was at the top of their list.
We ourselves had to pay a large sum of money for this testing process and I completely understand why the US impose this. However, I don’t think the UK has ever introduced such a thing. Hopefully I’m wrong.
No we don’t require evidence of good health, someone I know works in a chest clinic. At one time TB cases were rare but now there is a constant flow, brought in from countries were it is endemic. It might be different if you apply for residency in advance but not many do that!
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