JMDA president: Remain vigilant against TB

WESTERN BUREAU:

ALTHOUGH JAMAICA has reported a significantly low number of tuberculosis cases up to 2020, and there have been no significant reports of the disease in recent times, Jamaica Medical Doctors’ Association (JMDA) President Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley wants residents to remain vigilant against its potential spread.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that is spread through droplets in the air and can affect different body parts, including the lungs, the brain, kidneys and spine. Symptoms include a cough lasting longer than two weeks, weight loss, fever and night sweats.

Speaking to The Gleaner on Monday, Fitz-Henley noted that it would be extremely dangerous for anyone to contract TB along with COVID-19, as both diseases damage the lungs.

“We should never even consider that possibility of TB and COVID-19 merging, as it would be a very bad situation because both things negatively impact the lungs. Also, remember that a lot of persons who have passed on (from COVID) had chronic illnesses, and many of these chronic illnesses are things that affect the lungs, so the combinations have proven detrimental to the patient,” said Fitz-Henley.

“You still have to be on the lookout for TB because it is still present, but as far as we know, there is no increase in TB cases. Still, it is something to be aware of because TB is always present in Jamaica, it has never left, and it is a chronic condition and a continued presence in Jamaica,” Fitz-Henley added.

TB vaccine

That admonition came on the heels of a similar reminder from Dr Francine Phillips-Kelly, the medical officer of health for St James, during her report at last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

“As recently as today (Thursday), I had a patient, a resident of this parish, who has all the earmarks of this dreaded condition of TB based on investigation. It has not gone away, and we need to be aware that it is a condition of the lungs, for which we usually give new-born babies a vaccine to prevent it,” Phillips-Kelly said at the time.

“This is a condition which we thought we had laid to rest in the early 1900s. The National Chest Hospital started out as a TB sanatorium, and thereafter, as we got TB under control, we never had to leave it as a sanatorium,” Phillips-Kelly added, referencing the Kingston-based facility which was opened in 1940 during a tuberculosis outbreak in Jamaica. “But we have seen an upsurge in more recent years, many times associated with individuals who are immunocompromised.”

In the meantime, Fitz-Henley noted that the practice of mask-wearing as a preventive measure for COVID-19 may account for the relatively low number of TB cases.

“With persons wearing masks, you would be reducing the spread of TB. If there is somebody with the disease in the population, or in an area, it is less likely to spread as virulently because people are wearing masks,” said Fitz-Henley.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization mark the annual celebration of World Tuberculosis Day on March 24, the day when the TB bacterium was discovered by German physician Dr Robert Koch in 1882.

This year’s celebration will be held under the theme ‘Invest to end TB, save lives.’ Approximately 28,000 people worldwide fall ill with TB annually, with over 4,100 deaths from the disease.

According to the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed the gains which have been made in the TB fight, with the number of case notifications dropping from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. This reduction resulted in an increase in the number of deaths from the disease, with some 10 million people contracting TB and 1.5 million dying from it in 2020.

Interestingly, for Jamaica, there were 70 cases of TB recorded in 2020, marking an incidence rate of 2.4 cases per 100,000 people.