Tuberculosis: why take preventive medical examination?

Since Soviet times, many people have the impression that a preventive examination is a formality that the doctor forces to perform. Alas...

Are you sure that the elderly father of your neighbor, who suffers from diabetes and who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, does not have tuberculosis? And are you sure that your mom's mom does not have tuberculosis? Are you sure that the seller of your favorite store does not have a "purchased" health book? I would not hurry to answer "Yes, I'm sure."

When the epidemic of influenza was announced late last year, many conscious citizens turned to clinics and did chest radiography to exclude pneumonia. And they did the right thing. After that, I had a question: who and how should tell the people that, in addition to the flu epidemic, there is a real year-round epidemic of tuberculosis in the country? And to protect yourself from infection with a gauze dressing and ointment in your nose is impossible. And that the death rate from tuberculosis is higher than the death rate from influenza, several times ...

Think about it: in 2009, 10 000 people died of tuberculosis in Ukraine. And this is only according to official statistics. And how many in fact - you can only guess!

But we do not live at the beginning of the twentieth century, but in the era of antibiotics and mass vaccine-preventive medicine. Tuberculosis is considered a disease of poor countries, but this does not mean that only "poor" people are ill. They simply have a low level of consciousness and do not care about their own health at all - they become ill and are the sources of infection spread among the entire population of the country. Today in Ukraine a large number of socially disadvantaged people, many of whom are ill with an open form of tuberculosis. Accordingly, when they cough on the street and in transport, mycobacterium tuberculosis is released into the external environment along with phlegm, dry up and rise into the air that we all breathe.

For reference. The aerogenic route of infection with tuberculosis is the main one (90-95% of cases). During a cough and conversation, a patient with tuberculosis emits droplets of saliva and sputum, which fly off by 1.5-2 m and are in the air for 1-1.5 hours, and then settle on the floor. Infection is possible with direct inhalation of sputum drops or dust that contains mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to the influence of the external environment: at a temperature of 50 ° C they die after 12 hours, 70 ° C in 1 minute, and at t -23 ° C may exist for about seven years. Especially the strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis in dried sputum, where for their neutralization it is required to heat up to 100 ° C for 45 minutes.

The conclusion is simple - for any socially successful person, to the greatest regret, even if he does not use public transport, there is a chance of getting tuberculosis. It depends on the state of the human immune system and how much virulent mycobacterium gets into the body of this person. (Virulence-the degree of species-specific properties of the mycobacterium cause the disease). Isolate groups of people at increased risk of developing tuberculosis. These are people who were in contact with a sick tuberculosis, patients with diabetes mellitus, taking corticosteroid hormones, elderly people, people working in conditions with increased occupational hazards, suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction.

The insidious feature of this disease is that in the beginning of the disease there are no clinical complaints, the person feels satisfactory. If there are symptoms typical for pulmonary tuberculosis: coughing, general weakness, sweating, a temperature of about 37 ° C, this indicates that the process has already gone far and treatment will be long. Immediately make a reservation, tuberculosis is not a sentence! It is treated with antibacterial drugs. The question is how long: 3 months or a year; two drugs or four? What to do in order not to miss the disease at an early stage? The answer is simple - X-ray examination of the chest cavity with a preventive purpose.

Preventative examination for tuberculosis

Which way is better? There are two options. The first - fluorography of the chest cavity is conducted at the place of residence to all citizens of Ukraine. The second is the radiography of the thoracic cavity organs.

What is the difference in what method and on what apparatus to be examined? Fluorography is a method less informative than X-ray with a greater radiation load. Radiography on an ordinary X-ray apparatus is more informative and has a lower radiation load than with fluorography. Digital radiography is the minimum radiation load and maximum informative value!

Another important aspect. For those over forty, chest X-ray is a method of early diagnosis of lung cancer, which ranks first in the structure of cancer morbidity and mortality due to pathology among men.

Remember - you carry out a preventive check for yourself, not to find a disease, but to make sure that you are healthy. Treatment of any disease is more effective and cheaper in the early stages, regardless of your social level and financial situation.