Tuberculosis is a very common disease in the modern world. In many parts of the world, Tuberculosis has been known as the coughing disease. The reason for this name is because uncontrollable coughing is one of the most common symptoms that Tuberculosis patients get. One may think that coughing could never kill a person. However, the World Health Organization recently declared that this infection is deadly and could spread to the whole world if it is not dealt with in time. They have also ranked it amongst the top 10 most deadly diseases in the world. Tuberculosis was known to be an infection that caused certain death when it was first discovered by Dr Robert Koch in 1882 (History of Tuberculosis). Since then, the development of medicines and medical equipment has helped doctors in treating and easily detecting this disease. Still, doctors can only treat patients who have been recently diagnosed with tuberculosis. Patients who are too late in finding out about their disease also limit their chances of staying alive. This research paper mentions the causes, symptoms, and main remedies of Tuberculosis. The main purpose of writing about this topic is to determine whether people, especially children and teenagers, are aware of this life-threatening disease. This research will also decide whether this disease should be talked about more around the world.
Literary Review
Tuberculosis is scientifically known as a disease originated by a bacterium with the name mycobacterium tuberculosis. This harmful bacterium almost always attacks the lungs, but can also damage other parts of the body, like the brain and spine (Summary of Tuberculosis). Tuberculosis is spread in the air as a person who is diagnosed coughs, sneezes, laughs, or even talks. Nevertheless, tuberculosis is not easy to catch as the germs grow slowly, and is usually caught when people have close contact with each other. Therefore, the disease is usually more common among co-workers, family members, and friends (Articles about Tuberculosis).
Until now, there are two known types of this disease. The first type is the latent tuberculosis in which a person carries the germs but is not sick and cannot pass it to other people. The second type is called the active tuberculosis. People diagnosed with this type get sick, and can make other people sick as well (Wouk 10).
Latent tuberculosis shows no symptoms. Nonetheless, when the disease alters into active Tuberculosis, symptoms begin to show. The most common symptom is coughing, which usually lasts for over 2 weeks. Patients also tend to bring up mucus with blood when coughing, or have a dry cough in which there is no mucus. Other signs include chest pain, sudden weight loss, fevers, and loss of appetite. Doctors also list that patients diagnosed with tuberculosis always look tired and always seem to have a shortness of breath when visiting for their treatment or checkup (Diagnosis and Treatment).
In most cases, once the Tuberculosis bacterium enters the body, it enters and stays in the lungs. Then, when it’s active, it starts to spread into the lymph nodes and other areas of the human body. Lymph nodes are glands that protect the body against diseases. So, Tuberculosis is more common in people with weaker immune systems that cannot restrain the infection to one area (Goldman). The Tuberculosis bacteria can damage the lungs as well, making them unable to bring enough oxygen to the blood, and when the body does not get enough oxygen, it cannot function properly.
Many diseases, such as the well-known flu, have symptoms like coughing, fever, and loss of appetite that are similar to those of Tuberculosis. That’s why indicators of the disease are often mistaken for other health problems. Because the bacteria from Tuberculosis take a long time to multiply, the symptoms also develop slowly, usually taking months or years to show (Laube). This makes it really difficult for a person to know that they are diagnosed with tuberculosis without consulting a doctor and running tests. For example, someone with a cough may simply ignore it because they think it is related to asthma or an allergy they have.
Randal McPartland states that the cure of tuberculosis was one of the greatest medical discoveries in history (McPartland 7). Antibiotic treatment has been and still is the standard means of controlling and curing most cases of tuberculosis, but many governments through out the world seek to stop the outbreak of this disease by using the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, which helps to prevent the development of active tuberculosis (Yancey 63). The World Health Organization disagrees and believes that the disease is nowadays easily treatable and curable with the use of 4 antimicrobial drugs, which are given by doctors (Tuberculosis Fact Sheet). The treatment is said to take about 6 to 9 months of consuming medicines daily.
Rationale
In this research, the following questions will be answered:
- Have people from all around the world been diagnosed with Tuberculosis?
- Is Tuberculosis limited to a certain number of specific countries?
- Are the chances of developing Tuberculosis equal for everyone?
- What are the chances of death caused by Tuberculosis?
- How many people around the world have latent Tuberculosis?
With these questions, I will try to make people more aware of Tuberculosis. They will also care more about the disease, instead of thinking that it is not lethal anymore because remedies have been found. Others also think that they will not develop this disease as they live in a healthier and non-polluted country and that people in polluted environments are the real ones at risk, but they are absolutely wrong. I believe that if these questions are answered, people all around the world will take better care of themselves and stay alert at all times whenever there is a chance of being diagnosed with Tuberculosis. These questions are all related to the fact that people are unaware of Tuberculosis and usually do not know how lethal it can be. If my questions have the answers I seek, I will prove my point that all people should be careful about Tuberculosis and should take precautions. This would also show that information about Tuberculosis needs to be spread worldwide so all people are aware of it. Having said that, if the questions hold other answers than what I believe, this would show that Tuberculosis is well known and it would be pointless to take action by spreading awareness.
Method, Design, and Procedure
Moreover, In order to carry out my hypothesis accurately, I created a survey related to Tuberculosis. The questions in this survey determined whether the person was fully aware of Tuberculosis and took it seriously. The participants of this survey were 30 individuals, who were chosen randomly, and consisted of students, teachers, and parents.
Before any of these individuals could start the survey, I asked them to not answer the questions while being in the same room, or with the opinions of each other. I wanted to guarantee that what I was getting was their genuine opinion about the manner. I also made sure that the participants were in an age range of 16-45 Years old, to ensure that they would understand this survey and be capable of answering it. This was also done because individuals who are diagnosed with Tuberculosis are usually in this age range.
The survey consisted of only 3 brief questions and was made on a survey based website (www.surveymonkey.com). All 3 questions were Yes or No questions, in order to make answering easier for the participants.
- The first question asked if the person would be concerned by huge amounts of coughing.
- The following question was if they thought coughing could cause death.
- The final question was the most important one and asked if they had ever heard of a disease called Tuberculosis.
After finishing the survey, I personally asked the participants to thoroughly explain why they went with a certain answer.
I also made a questionnaire about Tuberculosis, which was targeted at people who had family members or friends who were once diagnosed with Tuberculosis. It contained 2 questions related to the topic. The questionnaire was printed and handed to those chosen people, and taken back from them after a week. The number of participants in this questionnaire was only 7 individuals because more people who met the criteria could not be found. The first question asked if they became aware of tuberculosis before their friend or family member was diagnosed with the disease or after that. The other question wasn’t a multiple choice question and asked them to write about their friend or family member’s experience with Tuberculosis and when they found out they were diagnosed with the disease.
Results
The survey brought in shocking results. 83.33% (25 individuals) of the participants answered No to the first question and 16.67% (5 individuals) answered with a Yes. What was concerning about the matter was that all teenagers had answered No, and the only individuals who answered Yes were parents. When asking them about the reason why they chose No, I got an answer from the majority which said that they would not be concerned because a bit of cough syrup would always stop the coughing. The second question ended up having an unusual result. Almost all participants answered Yes with a whopping 96.67% (29 individuals). They later explained to me that a person who coughs a lot without stopping might become unable to breath at one point and his lungs would become damaged, so he could choke to death. I found it quite absurd that they believe coughing is not something to be concerned about while saying that it can cause death. The third question had the exact result that I expected. A majority 89.99% (27 individuals) answered No and 10.01% (3 individuals) answered Yes. Those who answered Yes cleared out that their family members had been diagnosed with the disease before and that’s how they found out. This showed that almost all participants were not concerned about high amounts of coughing even when they knew it could cause death because they always though that a certain medicine could stop the coughing. It also shows that none of them were aware of the Tuberculosis disease other than those who have contacted it during their lifetime.
The questionnaire’s results ended up being one sided. All 7 individuals said that they found out about the Tuberculosis disease after their family member or friend was diagnosed. They also added that they know start to perform full body checkups every 6 months in order to stay clear of the disease. The second question was almost answered in the same way as well. Although their overall experiences with the disease were different, all 7 family members or friends of the participants were diagnosed with the disease when it was in the active phase. This reveals that they did not go for body checkups before being diagnosed and probably consulted a doctor when they started coughing up blood. This creates another evidence showing that people not knowing the disease can really make it harder for them to recover from it.
Significance and Conclusion
In conclusion, the results themselves show that the majority of people do not take symptoms seriously and would only know about a certain disease when it is too late. It also shows that Tuberculosis, as tragic as it can be, is not known by many teenagers and adults. This means that people are not aware of Tuberculosis and would certainly mistake it with other diseases. This would lead to them not taking the right precautions, which would probably put their life in danger if they do not visit a doctor or are not consulted by someone fast enough. The importance of this research comes from the fact that by raising awareness, hundreds of thousands of lives would be saved every year, and people diagnosed with the disease will try to take more caution when being among others. This by itself would contribute to help in eradicating this disease which is indeed one of the many goals of the World Health Organization and other health related groups around the world.
Knowing that Tuberculosis is a life-threatening disease displays the necessity of raising awareness about this matter. I believe that the best way in doing so is by making Tuberculosis campaigns all around the country, which aim at increasing the people’s knowledge about this disease. Another way would be to show information about this disease on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. In my opinion, It is really necessary for schools to put together lectures every once in a while for students and teachers in order to make them aware of the danger of Tuberculosis. This will also mean that the students who attend the lecture will make sure that their parents and siblings will also know about the Tuberculosis disease. Finally, by raising awareness about Tuberculosis, we can surely help in fully eliminating this deadly disease.