Avoid tuberculosis in crowded areas – Farayola

By Saheed Afolabi

A medical doctor, Dr Wale Farayola has said that Tuberculosis commonly known as TB spreads fast among people in crowded and poorly ventilated areas.

Speaking during a Health Talk on Tuberculosis (TB) organised by the Estate Youth Parliament (EYP), Dr Farayola explained that TB is a disease that affects the lungs which is caused by an organism called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 

“It is a very dangerous organism that shouldn’t be allowed to find its way in to the body and Mycobacterium bovis is another type of organism that can also get into the body through the consumption of unsterilized milk from cattles,” he said.

He explained further that the mode of transmission is when an infected person coughs into the air and another person inhales it.

“Inhalation of infected droplets like when an infected person coughs into the air and another person inhales it, transmission has occurred through that way because transmission is human to human and it is particularly common among those who live in crowded and poorly ventilated areas.

“The predisposing factors are nutritional deficiencies, chronic alcoholism, diabetes, cancer, AIDS, chronic kidney failure, smoking, overcrowding, close contact of patients with TB and deficiency of vitamin A or D.”

Farayola continued that chronic cough with blood, fever, pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO), drenching night sweats, severe weight loss, general debility, chest pain, exudative pleural effusion, unresolved pneumonia and lung collapse are signs and symptoms of tuberculosis, adding that some TB patients could sometimes be asymptomatic and that it can only be discovered through a routine chest x-ray. 

The doctor added that TB can only be cured through drug therapy which can beh gotten at some designated local government offices.