TB in Healthcare Workers for Southern African-myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theTB in Healthcare Workers for Southern African Nations. Answer: Tuberculosis in health care workers There are two types TB infections; the latent TB which is asymptomatic, and, the active TB which presents a number of signs and symptoms (Cowan et al., 2012). The most common signs and symptoms of TB are fever, night sweats, coughing, production of phlegm, and loss of weight. Since the development of HIV/AIDS in sub Saharan Africa, there has been a sharp increase in the cases of TB. This is so especially for the southern African nations leading to a TB pandemic. In 2011, the world incidence rates of TB by the WHO was about 125/100,000, whereby the incidence rate in Africa was 262, 100000 of the general population. Moreover, the incidence rates of TB in South Africa was estimated to be 993/100,000 people (Rossouw et al., 2012). In fact, out of the 8.7 million cases of active TB, in the year 2011, South Africa recorded about 0.5 million TB cases. There are a number of risk factors that are linked to the development of TB. These factors can fall into various classes such as personal and environmental risks (Floyd et al., 2012). Personal risk factors include malnutrition, smoking habits, diabetes, cancer and genetic predisposition among many more. The environmental factors include poor ventilation, getting into contact with contaminated sputum, and high levels of airborne bacteria (Mokhtar Rahman, 2017). It is commonly argued that there are some communities which are highly vulnerable to contacting TB such as the HIV infected people as well as health care workers(Bassett et al., 2016). In South Africa, these risk factors are also common, thus increasing the chances of acquiring these infections. For instance, the exposure factors to TB in South Africa is attributed to several risk factors. The exposure of health care workers to TB is due to the high prevalence of this disease condition among the people that they serve as well as the level of contact (McCarthy et al., 2015). The distribution of the risk factors to TB infection is differential in nature in places of work and depends of factors such as age, gender, the number of contact times with the patients and the health care departments which these health care workers work in. therefore, it is important to have a clear understanding of the risk factors that cause TB infections in health care workers in South Africa in order to effe ctively control this problem (Tudor et al., 2014). The workplace acquired TB has thus been described as a significant occupational healthcare problem in South Africa. A review was carried out in order to determine the level of acquired TB among health care workers. This review involved performing electronic database searches such as EMBASE, Web of Science and MEDLINE among others. The results indicated that out of the sixteen studies that were included in the review, ten of them reported that there was active TB among the health care workers (Grobler et al., 2016). This study also reported the presence of active TB including the drug resistant form among the South African population. The authors also recommend the need for regular screening of TB among health care workers in South Africa to prevent cross infections. Biological hazards Tuberculosis is a disease which has been posing major health problems for quite a number of year. It causes a great economic burden because there are no vaccines available yet there are some causative agents which are resistant to drugs. This condition is caused by the members of the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (Delogu et al., 2013). These bacterium have spread through the environment throughout the globe leading to TB pandemics. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a doubling time of between 12 to 24 hours and contains a very complex cell wall structure which is impermeable to toxic drugs and thus quite fundamental to its virulence. The pathogenesis of TB develops once some tubercles are dispersed into the air by an active TB infected patients (Samanovic Darwin, 2016). These tubercles, once inhaled ends into the alveoli where they are engulfed by macrophages. When some of the tubercles cannot be cleared by the host immune system, they may spread to different body part s. Some studies performed in non-human primate models have indicated that the metabolically active Mycobacterium tuberculosis in latent infections can divide in the host tissues even in the absence of any symptoms (Neyrolles et al., 2006). In a study carried out by Hernansez-Pando et al., in the year 2000 using lung tissues isolated from patients who had died from different causes and not by TB, in TB endemic regions, it was found that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA materials were present in non-phagocytic cells (Hernandez-Pando et al., 2000). TB prevention The diagnosis of TB is carried out at primary health care facilities like clinics and hospitals. In other cases, data from large population can be used to determine the possible TB cases. By preventing the HIV infections, the immune system of a person can be strengthened thus reducing the incidences of possible TB infections. Moreover, therapeutic approaches are used with common drugs being isoniazid and rifampicin among others (Bhatt et al., 2014). It has been observed that in people infected with HIV, the use of antiretroviral therapies reduces the severity of TB infections. Moreover, the accessibility of antiretroviral to South Africans has lowered the prevalence of TB among the people living with HIV. Legislations The existing legislations is that there is the integration of HIV and TB care in an effort to reduce the prevalence and incidence rates of the two conditions (Loveday Zweigenthal, 2011). This is true because when the two conditions are managed together, it is possible to control one or both through a sustained immune system. There is a need for more information as well as training concerning the possible methods of TB prevention on a regular basis in various health care departments. There also exists some programs for TB control which have been strengthened by the introduction of rifampicin therapies through the DOTS program (Karim et al., 2009). However, the strategic plans in place to control TB infections in South Africa all depend on the ability of the South African government to create sustainable partnerships in the improvement of health care services. References Grobler, L., Mehtar, S., Dheda, K., Adams, S., Babatunde, S., Walt, M., Osman, M. (2016). The epidemiology of tuberculosis in health care workers in South Africa: a systematic review. BMC health services research, 16(1), 416. Delogu, G., Sali, M., Fadda, G. (2013). The biology of mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Mediterranean journal of hematology and infectious diseases, 5(1). Neyrolles, O., Hernndez-Pando, R., Pietri-Rouxel, F., Forns, P., Tailleux, L., Payn, J. A. B., ... Petit, C. (2006). Is adipose tissue a place for Mycobacterium tuberculosis persistence?. PloS one, 1(1), e43. Hernandez-Pando, R., Jeyanathan, M., Mengistu, G., Aguilar, D., Orozco, H., Harboe, M., ... Bjune, G. (2000). Persistence of DNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis in superficially normal lung tissue during latent infection. The Lancet, 356(9248), 2133-2138. Karim, S. S. A., Churchyard, G. J., Karim, Q. A., Lawn, S. D. (2009). HIV infection and tuberculosis in South Africa: an urgent need to escalate the public health response. the Lancet, 374(9693), 921-933. Loveday, M., Zweigenthal, V. (2011). TB and HIV integration: obstacles and possible solutions to implementation in South Africa. Tropical Medicine International Health, 16(4), 431-438. Floyd K, Dias HM, Falzon D, et al. Global tuberculosis report: 2012. Geneva: World Health Organization. Rossouw H. World TB Day, 24 March 2012. 2012 [cited 17 May 2013]; Available from: https://www.westerncape.gov.za/news/world-tb-day-24-march-2012. Bhatt, N. B., Barau, C., Amin, A., Baudin, E., Meggi, B., Silva, C., ... Taburet, A. M. (2014). 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McCarthy, K. M., Scott, L. E., Gous, N., Tellie, M., Venter, W. D. F., Stevens, W. S., Van Rie, A. (2015). High incidence of latent tuberculous infection among South African health workers: an urgent call for action. The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 19(6), 647-653. Tudor, C., Van der Walt, M., Margot, B., Dorman, S. E., Pan, W. K., Yenokyan, G., Farley, J. E. (2014). Tuberculosis among health care workers in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a retrospective cohort analysis. BMC Public Health, 14(1), 891. Samanovic, M. I., Darwin, K. H. (2016). Game of Somes: protein destruction for mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis. Trends in microbiology, 24(1), 26-34.