Tuberculosis, the Harmful Killer in Haiti!

By: Jie Wen Guan 10A

        

(Source: Nachtwey's Wish: Awareness of XDR-TB)

  Haiti is one of the world's five poorest nation. In Haiti, over 54 years, the fertility is 6- 4 children per women, 75% of the population is illiterate, and 60% is unemployed.  Over 60% of Haiti is living in poverty and this influence many people to get infected by tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB) is associated with low socio economic classes. Studies shows that there is a high percentage of patient that belong to "passive" classes such as housewives, students, etc. Tuberculosis is the world's most harmful disease killing 1.4 million people annually. Among all the people that were infected by tuberculosis in 2011, 72.4% of TB patients were male and  26.7% of patients were female. (Bate, Roger).  Both cigarettes and alcohol were present in  63.3% and 35.6% of TB cases. (European Journal of Epidemiology). Tuberculosis is currently harming too many people especially in Haiti.

           In the book called Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, tuberculosis killed more adults than any other disease. The main reason was because it is not easily treated or cured especially for someone with HIV. The diagnosis for TB can be tricky for someone with HIV. Nearly 25% of Haitians died before they reach 40. Farmer, who was a doctor who studied at Harvard medical school tries to find ways to help prevent or cure TB. In the book, Kidder states, “Improperly treated, or not treated at all, TB is dreadful and lethal, usually devouring the lungs but also sometimes other organs, and sometimes the bones”(Kidder, 126). In most cases, TB most commonly affects the lungs but if TB is improperly treated or not treated, it can affect other parts of the body. It can harm other organs such as the bone. Besides this, Kidder also indicates, “In poor countries, TB was the most common proximate cause of death among people who died with AIDs” (Kidder, 126). Among people who died with AIDs, TB was one of the leading cause of death in poor countries. Farmer spent most of his time in Haiti and in one of his latest book called Infections and Inequalities, it illustrates the connection between poverty and disease.

           Tuberculosis is mainly caused by a bacillus called Mycobacterium tuberculosis and can spread from one person to the next through air. As stated before, tuberculosis usually affects the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body such as the brain and kidney. The highest rate of TB were found in the poorest countries. Poverty that resulted in poor hygiene habits and overcrowded conditions is more likely to increase the chance to develop TB. Again, TB killed about 1.4 million people annually and we need to stop TB from spreading in the future especially in Haiti. (The Miami Herald, Fighting Tuberculosis). There is no medication that can fully heal TB at this moment, but we can find ways to reduce the rate of getting affected by this disease.  Curing the disease is important, but preventing the disease is even more important.

        

(Source: WPA Tuberculosis poster.jpg)

  We, as students can put up advertisements and flyers to show how harmful TB is and encourage people to fight against it.  We should show people how those with TB live and how they got a lot of treatment but still died at last. Many children lost their parents and many children also lost their lives because of this disease. Not only that, we can also invite doctors to educate the people who are infected by TB and also give them hope that they will get better. Some other options for how students can help include:

• Doing a fundraising event to fundraise money for them.
• raising awareness of raising money.
• Donating food and clothing for people who needs them like homeless people or people infected with TB.
• Donating money to Haiti to help them out and make the hospital cleaner.

It is very difficult for a person to accept that they are going to die and will never see their family again. It makes people want to give up on living. What we can do about this is to encourage the people with TB to think positive and to never give up on living because there is a lot of people in the world that would support them.