The intruder in your back yard

I never realized the scale of the problem until recently some of my close relatives were found to be carrying Tubercolosis Infection. So thought I will spread the word around just in case you may not know.

The Basic stuff: Can be found at Wikipedia

The Scary Stuff:

• India has the largest number of infections, with over 1.8 million cases.
• It is an air-borne disease, which means it is pretty easy to get infected. Easier than HIV
• It multiplies slowly and can take upto 20 years to show any symptoms, so the bacteria is slowly spreading without you knowing.
• I am sure you would have come in contact with at least a few carriers with an average of 1-2 people out of 1000 carrying the infection.
• If you have the infection imagine the number of people you could have passed it on to before you know/find out, I am sure you meet a lot of people in 20 years
• Once the symptoms show up they are a lot like common cold, cough/fever which means you would keep ignoring it until a significant part of the lungs is infected and the fever does not come down.

What you can do:
The kids nowdays get vacinated with BCG which takes care of their immunity against TB. But for the adults, it can still infect you, sometimes even if you have been vaccinated for BCG. So, the best thing to do is to get a TB test done. It is a pretty easy procedure, results are visible in 2-3 days (The Wiki above describes it) and should be easily available at your nearest hospital.

Don't wait until it becomes a problem:
You would think (and I did that too) that TB happens to poor people who do not get proper diet, smoke a or use tobacco. But all the folks I know are totally healthy, very well off and take good care of themselves. You could just be a carrier with an infection and never develop any symptoms, so you are better off controlling it before it damages any part of your body.

If you think other people will benefit from this information, pass the word around.