Abstract
Tuberculosis has been one of the deadly diseases that have been wiping the greatest number of people in the world today. This disease has been known to be existence for very many years, and it is caused by a mycobacterium which can replicate within hours. Different ethnic groups around the world have been known to be prone to the disease than others. A good example is the African Americans. In this paper we shall discuss in details about tuberculosis and why the African Americans have been thinking of the disease and how different treatment options, cultural beliefs and values have been impacting on the transmission and treatment of the disease.
Introduction
Tuberculosis, which is abbreviated as TB for Tubercles Bacillus, is one of the common diseases and yet very infectious and deadly on human population. This kind of disease is caused by a bacterium known as mycobacteria, usually referred to as Mycobacterium tuberculosis in man. This kind of disease shall attack the human lungs and might progress to some other parts of the body. The pathogenic organisms causing the disease can be easily transmitted through the air; this means that, when an individual having the disease sneezes, spits or coughs, chances are quite high that he might infect others. Most of the infections occurred in humans are usually known to result in specific asymptomatic conditions, and after a number of months the infections would end up developing into an active tuberculosis disease. One thing about this kind of disease is that it would result in fifty percent deaths of the infected individuals (Blumberg & Jasmer, 2005).
There have been a lot of disparities existing with tuberculosis and would show varied persistence in different members of a given racial or ethnic populations in different parts of the world. In the year 2007, the majority of all the cases of the disease that had been reported at 83 per cent were all from the racial minority groups. These included the African Americans, the non-Hispanic individuals, and the Asians. This means that the racial groups are more prone to the diseases, an indication that there are a number of factors that must be making the groups quite vulnerable to the disease. The overall proportion of the disease with the African Americans has been the greatest going by the previous statistics. In the same year, 2007, among all the individuals born in the United States, 45 per cent of the individuals suffering from tuberculosis had been noted to be African Americans, both black and the non-Hispanic. Although it is true that the rates of the disease in both the blacks and whites in the country have been declining for the last few years, the same kind of disparity still remains (Blumberg & Jasmer, 2005), and with the blacks being greatly recording new infections. Addressing this kind of TB disparity within the African Americans as compared with the whites is something that should be addressed with the greatest urgency.
Useful Discussions Relating to Tuberculosis
The primary causative agent of this kind of disease is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is a very small non-motile aerobic bacillus. Due to the presence of high lipid wall of the organism, the bacterium has many properties which make it extremely pathogenic (Ryan, 1993). The bacterium has the capability of dividing in every 17 to 20 hours hence increasing its ability in spreading the disease. The disease causing organism can thus be easily spread through air, body fluids, and other means such as coughing, sneezing, and spitting. This means that these should be controlled and managed of the disease was to be effectively contained. Why is it that the racial groups like the African Americans have been more susceptible to this kind of disease as compared to the other races in the United States of America?
The African Americans have been having a disproportionate rates and share of the cases of this disease in the United States of America. Specifically, about forty-eight per cent of all the reported cases of the disease have been recorded with this racial group. The interpretation here is that there must be a number of factors that must be resulting into these kinds of infections in the country. These factors have these led to increased disparities in the disease (Ryan, 1993). The disparity which has been highly pronounced has been attributed to the continued poverty with the groups, pronounced racism in the country, and lack of proper health care facilities and treatment options. These are the major causal factors that have been making the group more vulnerable to the disease.
As well, there are a number of environmental factors that have been seeing more and more African Americans being vulnerable to the disease. Having been living in poor health conditions and in densely populated environments, chances have been very high that more and more individuals shall continue being infected with the disease. Some areas have also not been addressed in terms of health care access and provision of health services hence seeing more and more individuals more vulnerable to the disease. Some individuals have also not been given the appropriate awareness towards the issues of the disease, and therefore they happen not to understand the manner in which the disease is transmitted therefore not taking the necessary measures towards its control.
There are a number of modes through which this kind of disease can be transmitted from an individual to another. On of the most possible and common way of spread is when an individual who is TB positive sneezes or lets out droplets of the sputum to the air in a crowded place thereby conveying the germs to the other people. For instance, one sneeze is capable of releasing about forty thousand similar droplets. Each and every droplet has the capability of transmitting this disease due to the fact that the infectious dosage of the tuberculosis disease can be very low (Ryan, 1993). People who have prolonged, and frequent contact would be at a higher risk towards getting infected. It is indicated that a tuberculosis patient who has not yet been treated and has the active type of the disease is capable of infecting up to about ten people in one year. Other important factors towards the infection include the virulence of the causing organism, the time of exposure, and the ventilation effectiveness. This is a very easy-to-spread disease and hence it would be necessary that the appropriate measures are taken towards its control.
Control of this disease has been something tricky yet it has been done by many societies effectively. TB can be keenly prevented and controlled by taking into consideration two parallel initiatives and approaches. Importantly, the first approach should be having all the people suffering from TB identified keenly and the treated accordingly (Blumberg & Jasmer, 2005). The identification process of the infections can be done so as to control father spread. The second important approach towards prevention and control of this kind of disease is through vaccination of small children who have just been born. However, there has been no development of a reliable vaccine that can work effectively with adults. However, in areas with tropical climates having high species levels of mycobacteria, an exposure of non-tuberculosis mycobacteria has been noted to give strong protection of the disease (Ryan, 1993).
Basically, the African Americans have been applying similar control measures and other treatments processes just like any other individuals in the country. The treatment of the disease has been done through intensive use of antibiotics which have been known to be effective in killing the causing bacteria. Effective treatment of the disease has been difficult, and this has been as a result of the unusual chemical constitution and structure of the organisms. This kind of structure has been making most of the antibiotics quite ineffective since they cannot adequately penetrate the walls of the mycobacterium. The commonly used two antibiotics in the treatment of this kind of infection are isoniazid and rifampicin. There is no other recorded alternate treatment which has been in use by the African Americans living in the United States. In some areas, there have been some held beliefs that the disease is inherited as a curse and the reason they have been holding cultural sanctifications as a way of treatment. However, this has been resulting in prolonged disease transmissions hence causing more and more individuals to be infected (Blumberg & Jasmer, 2005).
From a number of studies that have been done over the past few years, it has been proved beyond doubts that cultural issues and beliefs would definitely have great impacts on how different individuals and people would perceive the tuberculosis disease. This means that there would be varied observations and contentions towards the disease hence affecting the kind of approaches that have been put in place towards the disease. Due to such occurrences, there would be gaps towards the knowledge pertaining disease transmission and the TB mechanisms. This would as well affect the implications towards the treatment of the disease. Basically, social and cultural influences would see different individuals have different beliefs and approaches on how the disease is transmitted, and since that may not be true, the eventual outcome is the more individuals would continue being infected with the disease. This has been the major role played by culture and social influences towards the disease in the African American population.
Conclusion
Due to the development of theories that have been put forward about the disease, different individuals have applied these theories hence looking for other argumentations which affect the nature of treatment the individual shall seek. This has been seeing more individuals continue contracting the disease and others dying from it. There has also been an emergence between the nature of the disease and how the disease would be transmitted hence hindering the application and acceptance of the treatment operations. This has also resulted in great difficulties towards the differentiation of the vaccinations and the offered diagnostic tests on the disease. In that case, it shall be noted that there have been great impacts of belief and cultural values that have been impacting on the treatment options of the disease hence seeing more and more individuals becoming vulnerable (Blumberg & Jasmer, 2005).
Therefore, the overall understanding of the health beliefs as well as all the related behaviors would be something necessary in the development of comprehensively and cultural approach towards necessary TB education as a way of fighting the disease. The provision of congruence between the health behaviors and health beliefs can lead to better treatment and control of the disease. There should therefore be combined efforts in ensuring that this disease has been contained so that the African Americans do not continue being wiped out by the disease as it has been happening over the last decades. This can be achieved through adoption of better education approaches and provision of better health care services to the population.
References
Blumberg, M. and Jasmer, M. (2005). ‘Update on the treatment of tuberculosis and latent tuberculosis infection’. JAMA, 293 (22), 2776–2784.
Ryan, F. (1993). The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won and Lost. Boston: Macmillan.