TB: Silent Killer Video Analysis

“I think anyone can have TB, it is not choosy.” Nakubheka, the 12 year old from Swaziland with MDR-TB, stated the grim reality of living in a country wracked by disease. Yet, according to the film TB: Silent Killer, TB was treated with as much stigma as HIV/AIDs. This stigma causes people to delay getting diagnosis and treatment. Often people would keep the diagnosis to themselves, remaining at home. The video highlighted the cramped living conditions, crowded school and buses. If people with early signs of infection are delaying treatment then they could easily transmit the disease in cramped quarters, since the disease is airborne. Nakubheka acquired the MDR-TB from her mother, either while she was still living at home or during the times she visited her

People can be seen wearing ill-fitting masks, removing the masks, or wearing them without covering their nose. The CDC suggests surgical mask may not be an adequate barrier to prevent the spread of the disease. The disease is highly infectious and several nurses working at the TB isolation hospital, where Nakubheka was treated for her MDR-TB, were also infected. The treatment for TB has side effects, ranging from nausea and vomiting to permanent deafness and renal failure, and is not always completed by patients. Failure to finish the course of antibiotics can cause mutation to a more severe form called multi-drug resistant TB (MDR) or extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB). The XDR regime involves 2 years of injection followed by 3 years of tablets, yet it is almost incurable. While there were measures in place to encourage patients to take their full regime, in spite of side effects, it was not clear how successful they were. One patient, Bheki, attended a support group designed to increase patient compliance. However, when his symptoms got worse and he went to the doctor and told them that if they increased his medications that he would throw them