Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that is spread via air contaminated with tuberculosis germs. According to the American Lung Association, tuberculosis most commonly affects the lungs but can also impact almost any part of the human body. It may be passed when an infected person laughs, coughs, speaks, sings, sneezes or completes any other human bodily function that utilizes the air. Tuberculosis most commonly spreads from one infected person to another person within close range on multiple occasions. While treatable and preventable, tuberculosis can be fatal, most commonly in the developing world. This disease has physical, social and economic impacts on those infected, their families and the nations where they live.
Physical Impacts
Once someone is infected with the disease, there are physical implications of being a carrier. According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis has a long incubation period of up to five years or slightly longer. After this time, the germs carrying tuberculosis in the body become active and start producing symptoms while doing damage to the host. These symptoms can include weight loss, loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, night sweats and, most notably, a persistent cough that can produce blood.
Social Impacts
Tuberculosis can be extremely isolating for those infected with the disease. During the beginning stages of being a carrier of the active germs, you are required by medical professionals to stay physically isolated for a two-week period while receiving treatment that results in no longer being contagious. For those who are not treated in a timely manner but are aware that they are infected, this isolation may be extended for an inordinate amount of time.
In a study conducted by the Department of Community Medicine at Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, India, it was shown that tuberculosis patients rated their quality of life as significantly lower than those test cases of non-infected patients. Women, in particular, felt that the effects of being a carrier of the disease were devastating to their romantic lives as well as their abilities to parent their children due to fears of infecting them.
Economic Impacts
Individuals diagnosed with tuberculosis are often medically quarantined for a period of time, which can affect their financial well-being. Those infected have an economic impact on their families and in turn their countries' national economies through their inability to contribute financially, as they are often unable to be productive workers.
Tuberculosis is most prevalent in developing nations and often coincides with malaria prevalence and acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, and human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, infections. As an opportunistic disease, tuberculosis easily seats itself in carriers with weakened immune systems. When tuberculosis is a secondary infection in those with a primary infection that is as dire as AIDS, HIV or malaria, it is often a fatal disease. These correlations of infection translate into weaker economic systems for those countries with a dense population of infected individuals, as shown in research done by Guy Harling of McGill University in Montreal.
