Thailand To Fight Tuberculosis

[george]

Bt700m for fight against TB

BANGKOK: -- The Global Fund to Fight Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria has provided Bt690 million to the Public Health Ministry in a further project to help tackle TB.

Given that 28 per cent of businesses admitted in a recent survey that TB was a problem, the government has decided to fight the disabling disease by focusing on two million industrial workers at 10,000 sites across the country, Prat Boon-yawongvirot, the permanent secretary for Health, told a press conference yesterday.

TB was a global issue, Prat said. The World Health Organisation has said Thailand is among 22 countries with a worrying rate of TB. A report on the TB situation here last year found 28,349 cases of latent TB, or 88 in every 100,000 people, he said.

Most TB cases are HIV related. About 15 per cent of people with HIV/Aids have TB, while 30 per cent of TB patients were HIV positive.

The ministry submitted a funding proposal to the GFATM in 2002 and Bt5.55 billion was approved, with Bt3.9 billion already used up for seven projects to control Aids, TB and malaria.

Six projects were conducted from February 2002 to last September. The seventh, backed by Bt690 million from the GFATM, would soon be launched to suppress and prevent TB and Aids in workplaces.

The same survey that found 28 per cent of businesses complaining about TB found only 11 per cent identified Aids as hurting their business.

Prat said if managers did not accurately grasp TB, workers with TB might face discrimination, like as those living with HIV/Aids, as well as possible termination or pressure to resign. This would lead to difficulties for hospitals to follow through with TB patients. The patients would stop taking their prescriptions and the disease would spread, making it even more difficult to contain. Less than 80 per cent of TB patients in this country were successfully cured, he said.

-- The Nation 2007-11-08

[seonai]

I have TB and I don't have HIV.

There is a hellish amount of stigma already attached to TB withut saying that most cases of TB have HIV

Sorry, very close to my heart this one... or my lungs

[mindabenda]

My wife was found to have TB after a visit to my family doctor during a visit to Canada in 2001. She was then quarantined for two weeks while medics evaluated her condition. Apparently there are two types of TB one of which is highly contagious fortunately she was infected by the strain which was less contagious. When she was released from quarantine she was given medication to combat the contagion, a mere 13 pills a day which she took for about a year. Could an average Thai afford such medication? I highly doubt it. Would the government foot the bill? I doubt that too. Happily she has been cured after close monitoring by public health officials.

[astral]

A child vaccination plan would be a start..................

I was vaccinated at school when I was about 12, back in 1959,

but that was in the UK.

[seonai]

The UK has stopped giving the vaccine unless you are 'at risk' - mixed race etc.

In Thailand TB drugs are free, totally free and have been for a while. Hospital treatment is paid for by you. TB is RIFE in Thailand and people really need to be told about it - I would spend a large part of the donated cash on media awareness raising. TB is not going away and it's killing more people in the world than HIV and Malaria every year. Fact - source WHO

[my friend I]

TB keeps spreading because people don't take the complete course of medicine. Often coz of the expense

[dseawarrior]

TB keeps spreading because people don't take the complete course of medicine. Often coz of the expense

I agree... I have researched this a bit, plus I have been through the TB Isonaizid course of medicine... It takes a long time and it is hard on the liver for some folks...

The best treatment standards include actually WATCHING folks with TB take their medicine... Often if not WATCHED or supervised, folks will not take their medicine or they may give to someone else -- which defeats the purpose of the treatment...

Also, from what I have researched, the vaccine is not very affective... So is often a waste of time and money and resources...

Be sure to take your medicine...

ds

[astral]

The UK has stopped giving the vaccine unless you are 'at risk' - mixed race etc.

It sound as though travel to Thailand places UK citizens "at risk".

My guess is that the vaccination scheme in the UK has been dropped because TB has been eradicated.

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned?

Is there a vaccination scheme for TB in Thailand?

I know they vaccinate school children for various diseases,

but do not recollect mine coming home with signs of a TB test.

[seonai]

Astral the vaccine is not 100% effective and doesn't last all your life - I was vaccinated and I got TB! And the idea that TB was ever eradicated in UK is a myth, sorry, it never was. Current figures show nearly 9,000 cases in UK.

[Thailand]

My wife has just been diagnosed with TB here in Chiang Mai , we are not Thai so a fairly expensive /extensive course of treatment has just started.

[seonai]

Hi Thailand, if you want to chat about the treatment feel free, it's hard going so you might need a little support

[Thailand]

Hi Thailand, if you want to chat about the treatment feel free, it's hard going so you might need a little support

Thanks for that , will keep it in mind.

[Tiny999]

My Girlfriend has been diagnosed with TB , Is it true Thai nationals really get free treatment? And would the drugs be of the same standard of an international hospital?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[astral]

Astral the vaccine is not 100% effective and doesn't last all your life - I was vaccinated and I got TB!

And the idea that TB was ever eradicated in UK is a myth, sorry, it never was. Current figures show nearly 9,000 cases in UK.

Yes, I see what you mean,

but surely reducing the risk to 30% from 100% is worthwhile procedure,

especially where there is a high risk of contracting the disease??

9000 cases in the UK in a population of +60million seems pretty good.

What is the infection rate in Thailand, which has a comparable population?

[jomtienbob]

The UK has stopped giving the vaccine unless you are 'at risk' - mixed race etc.

In Thailand TB drugs are free, totally free and have been for a while. Hospital treatment is paid for by you. TB is RIFE in Thailand and people really need to be told about it - I would spend a large part of the donated cash on media awareness raising. TB is not going away and it's killing more people in the world than HIV and Malaria every year. Fact - source WHO

I didn't agree with your statement that it kills more than Malaria, but I certainly thought it would be more than Aids. But this is what the experts at WHO say:

TB - In 2004, mortality and morbidity statistics included 14.6 million chronic active TB cases, 8.9 million new cases, and 1.6 million deaths.

Malaria - Each year, it causes disease in approximately 515 million people and kills approximately 3 million, most of them young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Aids - In 2005 alone, AIDS claimed an estimated 2.4–3.3 million lives, of which more than 570,000 were children. A third of these deaths are occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide.

So Malaria is easily the bigger pandemic by infection but I'd not like to experience any of them really.

I had a team of 60 Thai guys working on a project with me for a big multinational and both HIV & TB were surprisingly common. The problem is of course that you can safely work around people with HIV but TB is a different nasty kettle of fish. Guess which ones the big multinational wanted me to fire???

[seonai]

You know I am not sure if I'm getting mixed up about the TB drugs being free, best ask Sheryl. I thought they were... but my head's a bit mushed up from taking the things for soooo long........

[sumrit]

Astral the vaccine is not 100% effective and doesn't last all your life - I was vaccinated and I got TB! And the idea that TB was ever eradicated in UK is a myth, sorry, it never was. Current figures show nearly 9,000 cases in UK.

I agree. I caught TB from a Thai girl visiting the UK over 13 years ago and I also had the TB injection at school, in the 60's. The doctor that treated me said that at best the vaccine was only ever 80% effective and its effectivness deteriated as we got older, so us over 50's living in Thailand are far more at risk than we thought. TB vaccinations for all children in the UK stopped over 20 years ago, since then only people at risk through contact are tested and vaccinated. One of the big problems now is people not completing the full course of medication but stopping when they 'feel' OK. This causes the TB to become drug resistent and becomes much harder to cure when it's passed on to other people.

[seonai]

Thanks Sumrit for your input, the drugs for TB have never been updated since the 1950s and therefore are still horrid to take so many people stop taking them when they feel 'well'. New evidence has shown how TB is on the rise across the world and instigated research into new drugs

[Payboy]

provided Bt690 million

thats a whopping bt 11.5 per person or a few hundred million for a group of lucky individuals

[tiger50]

can it be spread by coughing in peoples faces, happens to me a lot example on bts, walking in busy markets etc...or is it just my face?

[seonai]

Tiger yes it is spread by coughing, you have to be exposed to the coughing person for quite a few hours so hopefully on the BTS it should be okay. The droplets of the infection are carried in the 'cough' and then you inhale them. Personally I don't ever remember being with someone who coughed a lot so I am wondering if I caught it in an aircraft where the air is recycled