Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. Compared with other diseases which are caused by a single infectious agent, tuberculosis is globally the second biggest killer. In 2015, 10.4 million people got tuberculosis and 1.8 million of these died because this disease. Doctors make a distinction between two kinds of tuberculosis infection: active and latent. Active tuberculosis: the bacteria cause symptoms and can be transmitted to others. Latent tuberculosis: the bacteria remain in the body in an inactive state. They cause no symptoms, but they can become active.
Tuberculosis in Bangladesh:
The most common disease in Bangladesh is tuberculosis. Bangladesh has high rates of migration and the poor population faces poverty, overcrowding and poorly ventilated working and living conditions, all of which allow tuberculosis to spread. Furthermore, there is a general lack of awareness about tuberculosis infection among many parts of the population. Tuberculosis affects adults mostly in their economically productive years, because most of the health facilities are only open during daytime, the working population is not able to access them in an easy way without taking time off and potentially losing income.
Medical technology: the basic idea:
We use technology everywhere and it can be a matter of life/death in the medical factor. Technology has already saved millions of lives. However, we can increase the number of saved lives by involving medical technology in the treatment process. A simple definition of medical technology is the use of our knowledge to build objects which protect living organisms from death or disease. There are two main areas on which we focus in medical technology: treatment and diagnosis. Furthermore, there are at least hundreds of examples of medical technology which we could talk about in both categories.
Can laboratories and laboratory systems (medical technology) help to solve tuberculosis?
The laboratory has always played a big role in diagnosing tuberculosis and monitoring its treatment. In the new millennium, the strength of the laboratory network often is a direct reflection of the worldwide success of tuberculosis control programmes. Some developed countries have taken advantage of the new technologies that provide rapid identification, detection and drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, hastening the decrease of the prevalence of the disease when its combined with good treatment programmes. On the other hand, many developing countries have high rates of tuberculosis and they struggle to provide good-quality microscopy, with access to culture.
Countries have been demonstrating effective tuberculosis control for a long time by using microscopy-based diagnosis combined with well-managed treatment programmes.