Posted on 03/21/2010 9:35:51 PM PDT by MamaDearest
Regarding tuberculosis, there’s good news and bad news.
Let’s start with the good news: the CDC announced that the rate of tuberculosis in the United States dropped 11.8% in 2008.
The bad news comes from estimates prepared by the World Health Organization, which asserted this week that drug resistant tuberculosis is on the rise in other parts of the globe, most notably in Russia, India and China. In fact, of the 440,000 cases of resistant TB reported in 2008, one third died and half were in India and China. As a result, WHO is urging these countries to devote entire labs to fighting the disease.
New and “Improved” TB Strain
The multi-drug resistant strain, or MDR-TB, can be treated, but the course of treatment is costly and time consuming. Conventional treatment for TB costs about $20 and lasts for 6 months. MDR-TB treatment, however, costs $500 and can last for up to two years, primarily because the strain is resistant to both the first and second lines of antibiotic treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Once the leading cause of death in the United States, TB is caused by the bacterium referred to as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Due to medical advances, of the 2 billion cases of the disease, the vast majority are latent, meaning the patients afflicted with it are not infectious. However, the CDC reports that 1 in ten of those patients will develop active TB, usually when the immune system is weakened.
How TB is Spread
According to the CDC website, MDR-TB spreads the same way as conventional TB: since the germs are airborne (and can live for several hours), a person with TB can infect others by simply speaking or sneezing into the air.
However, TB is not spread through shaking hands, kissing, or touching toilet seats.
Tuberculosis symptoms include coughing for 3 weeks or longer, pain in the chest, coughing up blood or sputum, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever, and sweating at night, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tuberculosis treatments vary depending on the patient's health status and the severity of the disease. For latent TB, preventative drug therapy using isoniazid may be employed to destroy the bacteria that may revive in the future. For active TB disease, it is likely that four medications, isoniazid, rifampin (Rifadin), ethambutol (Myambutol) and pyrazineamide are used, according to mayoclinic.com.
Vitamin D Boosts Immunity Against Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a type of infection. Like many other infectious diseases, TB can infect individuals with compromised immunity more easily than those with normal immunity. Certain vitamins such as vitamin D are needed for a person's immunity; maintaining a sufficient level of vitamin D may help reduce the risk of acquiring TB.
No trial seems to have been carried out to demonstrate the efficacy of vitamin D in preventing TB; however, evidence has emerged that suggests that possibility.
Williams V and colleagues from North West London Hospitals NHS Trust in Middlesex, England published an article in the Oct 2008 issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal suggesting that the overwhelming majority of children with TB suffered vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency.
Dr. Williams et al. examined 64 children with either active or latent TB infection who attended the authors' TB clinic during a 2-year period. They found that 86 percent were either vitamin D deficient, (defined as having serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at lower than 20 nmol per liter), or insufficient, defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D at lower than 75 nmol per liter.
Of 26 children with active TB, only one was vitamin D replete, which could mean that about 95 percent of children with active TB had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency.
Sita-Lumsden A and colleagues from Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation Trust in London, UK also observed a similar pattern in a case-controlled study published in the Nov 2007 issue of Thorax.
These researchers discovered that patients with active TB had lower serum vitamin D concentrations than healthy controls.
Vitamin D is known to help produce antimicrobial peptides that can fight both bacteria and viruses, while also preventing infections, according to Dr. John Cannell, a vitamin D expert and director of Vitamin D Council, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate people about the importance of vitamin D to their health.
Ralph A.P. and colleagues from Royal Darwin Hospital Campus in Australia published a review on the issue in the July 2008 edition of Trends in Microbiology saying that L-arginine and vitamin D may be used as adjunctive TB immunotherapies.
The authors maintain that "By enhancing mycobacterial killing in macrophages, L-arginine and vitamin D might have the potential to enable shorter duration of treatment, reduced infectivity and improved response in drug-resistant TB."
I hope vitamin D works in that capacity. It looks like that’s all we’ll have to rely on in the very near future...
TB is supposed to be the all-time leading killer infectious disease throughout history, I believe. Killing more of us than the rest of the bug-caused diseases put together.
Just a month ago McCain was attempting to put vitamins, minerals and supplements under big pharma / government control. I doubt they will stop until the things we use (like Vitamin D) are under their control and administered by their dictate:
Vitamin D insufficiency linked to asthma in African-American kids
Vitamin D helps fend off flu, asthma attacks - study
Vitamin D linked to lower heart disease risk
Vitamin D may help prevent colon cancer
Study urges vitamiin D supplement for infants
Health care reform bill dooms America to pharma-dominated sickness and suffering
We started taking 10,000 IUs daily, due to reading recent studies suggesting that as the new upper tolerable intake level.
Mostly with prayer by church members, family and friends along with some D3 and fish oil, my fracture is pretty much healed in just over a month’s time and I’m no spring chicken. I’ve been taking about 8,000 - 10,000 IUs daily since the break occurred and continuing now.
No surprise this and many other diseases are on the rise in the US... Many diseases are better resisted by the body when you have normal doses of vitamin D. But with American parents turning to soy milk for a variety of reasons, and slathering their kids with sunscreen, there’s really no readily available source of vitamin D for most children.
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