Tuberculosis Case Study

Introduction

Tuberculosis is still one of the deadliest treatable diseases in the Philippines. For thousands of years this airborne disease has plague the world. TB continues to strike number one disease that should be wiped away from all countries. According to WHO, there’s 9 million new TB cases and deaths of nearly 1.5 million people each year and the Philippines ranks top 10 with TB prevalence globally. This plague continues to spread and affect people through close contact over the span of year.

Discipline and behavior is a key issue to eradicate this disease. According to Silvio Waisbord, fully understanding and recognizing the components of both diagnosis and non-completion are essential in responses to behavioral compliance in TB control.

The result may be used to categorize symptomatic TB. It includes individual with cough for two or more weeks which may be with or without fever, some chest and back pains and other symptoms such as fatigue, sweating, shortness of breath and malaise. According to the WHO guidelines, symptomatic client shall undergo DSSM for diagnosis before start of treatment, whether they have x-ray results or none. A diagnostic Committee will evaluate the result together with clinical history and findings and will recommend whether or not the case will be started on treatment. Within two days, the client is advised to submit three sputum specimens to healthcare providers. The first specimen, also known as spot specimen is collected at the time of consultation while the second sputum is collected early in the morning. The third specimen will be collected when the client gets back to the facility. Laboratory results should have at least two positive sputum results, doubtful which has only one positive out of three specimens and negative if three specimens are negative in result. Prior to the start of the treatment regimen, the client will be weighed for the number of Fixed-Dose combination tablets that depends on the client’s weight. There are four categories of TB

According to WHO, “The most cost-effective way to stop the spread of TB in communities with a high incidence is by curing it. The best curative method for TB is known as DOTS.” The first element is Political commitment with increased and sustained financing. Political commitment is needed to foster national and international partnerships, which should be linked to long-term strategic action plans. Political commitment is required to support the overall structural and financial changes needed to improve the availability, distribution and motivation of competent health workers. The second is Case detection through quality-assured bacteriology. Bacteriology remains the recommended method of TB case detection, first using sputum smear microscopy and then culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST) and a wide network of properly equipped laboratories with trained personnel is necessary to ensure access to quality-assured sputum smear microscopy. Element three is Standardized treatment, with supervision and patient support The mainstay of TB control is organizing and administering standardized treatment across the country for all adult and pediatric TB cases – sputum smear-positive, smear-negative, and extra pulmonary. In all cases, WHO guidelines on patient categorization and management should be followed. These guidelines