People with latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) have a 5 percent to 10 percent risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB), but treatment can prevent the infection from becoming an active disease, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said.
TB has the highest annual number of new cases and deaths among the nation’s notifiable communicable diseases, but still approximately 20 percent of people with LTBI — a condition of persistent immune response to stimulation by mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens — are unwilling to receive treatment, the CDC said.
Individuals with LTBI do not have symptoms and are not contagious, but TB reactivation can occur when the individual’s immune system becomes suppressed, it said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) on Tuesday said people with LTBI neglect treatment mainly because they have insufficient understanding of the condition and are concerned that taking medication would damage their health, cost too much or disrupt their lifestyle.
National Taiwan University Hospital Division of Integrative Medicine physician Shu Chin-chung (樹金忠) said that although people with LTBI do not feel ill, the latent condition is persistent and patients have a 5 to 10 percent risk of falling ill with TB.
He cited a case of a ninth-grade student diagnosed with LTBI, who was unwilling to receive treatment because he was concerned that taking medication would disrupt his preparations for the college entrance examination.
He later developed TB because his immune system was suppressed from staying up late studying every night and had to miss the exam due to the mandatory isolation of TB patients.
“People [with LTBI] think they are fine and do not need treatment, but the bacteria is hiding in the body throughout their life and can become active TB when the person is feeling physically weak or has reduced immunity,” Shu said. “Sometimes the loss outweighs the gain”
He said a complete course of treatment for LTBI takes about three months, but the course of treatment for TB takes six months, requires taking medication every day and sometimes the use of multiple drugs.
TB spreads from person to person when a person with the disease coughs, speaks or sings and people nearby breathe in the bacteria and become infected, the CDC said.
People with HIV, taking immunosuppressive drugs, those who are on dialysis, have diabetes and poor control over their blood sugar and organ transplant donors are high-risk groups, it said.
Effective drugs with few side affects are available for the treatment of LTBI, the CDC said, adding that taking a complete course of treatment can prevent the infection from developing into active TB and also protect family and friends from the risk of infection.
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