Tackling TB: Three lessons the Covid-19 pandemic taught us - People weren’t able to be tested or treated for tuberculosis testing or treatment, derailing targets to end the disease
is a form of the disease for which commonly used TB drugs don’t work, making it difficult — and expensive — to treat.of multi-drug resistant TB cases. So a simple, cheap intervention such as wearing masks can be a real boon in a country with an under-resourced public healthcare system. And Covid has shown that it’s possible to get most people to buy into a behaviour change fairly quickly.The Covid pandemic has shown us how important testing is.
In the same way, catching TB early can go a long way to curbing the disease. Because TB has a long incubation period — the time from becoming infected to developing symptoms — many people can be exposed to the germs by someone who doesn’t know they’re infected. In addition, TB is an, which means it’s a disease that develops mostly in people with weak immune systems.
Muluken Melese is a senior technical advisor for TB, HIV and Aids with Management Sciences for Health, a nonprofit global health organisation, and a medical doctor and public health professional with more than three decades of clinical, project management and research experience. Andre Zagorski is a senior principal technical advisor with Management Sciences for Health and has over 25 years of global TB, infectious diseases, and essential medicines project management experience in Europe, Asia and Africa.
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