Antioquia is the place in Colombia that registers the highest number of tuberculosis cases, with 2,948 reports in 2021, for which health authorities maintain alerts. This March 24, World Day to Fight Tuberculosis, they emphasize the symptoms so that people can detect them in time.
In the department cases are concentrated mostly in people between 25 and 39 years old, and they affect men more strongly than women, according to the Antioquia Health Secretariat. Likewise, the subregions most affected by this disease are, in order, Valle de Aburrá, East, Urabá, Southwest, North, Bajo Cauca, West, Northeast and Middle Magdalena.
Tuberculosis, health authorities said, It is often confused with those of covid-19, because they have similar respiratory symptoms. However, according to experts, cough with or without expectoration for more than 15 days is the main alarm signal to suspect the presence of tuberculosis.
“People who get sick with tuberculosis and with covid-19 present similar symptoms, such as cough, fever and shortness of breath. The way of transmission of the two diseases is through close contacts; however, the incubation period from exposure to the disease is longer in tuberculosis and usually has a slow onset,” said César Augusto Toro, head of communicable diseases at the Antioquia Health Secretariat.
In addition to these signs, in the case of children the most relevant clinical symptoms are fever for more than eight days, weight loss or gain, decreased activity levels or play and history of contact with an adult with tuberculosis.
In the department, indicated the Secretary of Health, Lina Bustamante, strategies are developed such as advice and technical assistance to the municipalities to identify and report the disease. “Additionally, we have a group of experts: infectologists from different IPS, analyzing special cases involving the community, educating so that they are the first to identify the disease. This way we will be able to advance in the follow-up and supervised treatment of patients with tuberculosis”, said the official.
This sickness it is caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis, which usually attacks the lungs and other parts of the body such as the kidneys, spine, and brain. Not all people infected by the bacteria get sick, but there are two conditions related to tuberculosis: the latent and the active. In either case, if not treated properly, the disease can be fatal.
To detect tuberculosis, laboratory tests, radiography and clinical evaluation are required, and a correlation with the patient’s symptoms must always be established, as well as the history of contact with a case of tuberculosis.
People with the disease must receive a treatment that lasts between six and nine months, finish all the prescribed medications according to the medical indication, because if they stop them before expected they can get sick once more and generate resistance to antibiotics. In the country this treatment is free; the disease is curable, it is not hereditary, it does not require isolation and it almost never requires hospitalization.
