Cambodia: Funding the fight against tuberculosis

Progress in Cambodia in reducing deaths from tuberculosis could be short-lived as future funding could be in doubt.

 

 

Soth Srey Touch's sister died two months ago from a disease that antibiotics could have treaten.

Her sister was 43 years old when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis, but it was just too late.

"She was told that she had tuberculosis, but she was already too sick," Srey Touch, a resident of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, told Al Jazeera.

 

TB is treatable with antibiotics, but poor access to healthcare means many in Cambodia are, like Srey Touch's sister, still victims of a preventable death.

Decades of civil war left Cambodia's medical infrastructure in tatters and this country of some 15 million people has one of the highest rates of TB worldwide.

 

But years of effort have resulted in the number of people dying from the disease dropping by 67 percent in Cambodia, Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay, reporting from  Phnom Penh, said.

"Cambodia still has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis infection in the world, but the statistics are heading in the right direction quickly," he said.

 

read more http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/cambodia-funding-fight-tuberculosis-160916094252639.html

 

Many Thai's also have some indications of TB when tested.......... I have known several Thai's to show 'positive' on skin tests, But 'Negative' upon Xray, including 2 Thai wives (in the USA)(one Thai wife had and had  been treated for TB and could pass the test by Xray)............

I hope Cambodia will spend a little money on this very important affliction and increase 'cigarette Tax' 10 fold to cover the cost.......... Smokers don't realize the harm they are doing to themselves (TB) (and most importantly those around them)................

2 hours ago, sawadeeken said:

Many Thai's also have some indications of TB when tested.......... I have known several Thai's to show 'positive' on skin tests, But 'Negative' upon Xray, including 2 Thai wives (in the USA)(one Thai wife had and had  been treated for TB and could pass the test by Xray)............

I hope Cambodia will spend a little money on this very important affliction and increase 'cigarette Tax' 10 fold to cover the cost.......... Smokers don't realize the harm they are doing to themselves (TB) (and most importantly those around them)................

 

 No money needs to be spent - TB can be cured with vitamin D3. 

 

This is the conclusion of 2 studies with a 100% success rate.

 

Two new studies have linked vitamin D to the successful prevention and treatment of tuberculosis (TB).

The first study determined that vitamin D is key to the molecular mechanism that the body employs to fight tuberculosis. White blood cells convert vitamin D into an active form that helps make a protein that kills tuberculosis bacteria.

In the second study, Indonesian scientists compared the effect of vitamin D versus a placebo on almost 70 tuberculosis patients for some nine months. Treating tuberculosis patients with 10,000 units of vitamin D daily versus the much smaller amount (400 units) usually advocated by conventional medicine led to a 100 percent cure rate.

These findings could lead to the use of the vitamin as a means to prevent and cure the disease.