TB treatment and cure: Can faith help?

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
“We have tried to do everything but there has been no improvement. My husband had to take so many medicines for so many months, and yet there was no relief. We finally gave up and went to a faith healer in our village who did some animal sacrifices and put some ash on his forehead. We also went to this famous temple and got pooja done. But even that did not work, says Saroj, a 55 year old woman whose husband has been sick on and off for several years.

Can India be malaria free by 2030?

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Kusum (name changed) shudders at the mere mention of malaria. Last year she was diagnosed with malaria and suffered from weakness, fever, nausea and constant body ache for days. The news of two malaria deaths in the National Capital Region of Delhi is enough to transport her back to the nightmare of enduring it all.

Towards a TB-free world: Shorter MDR-TB regimen

Dr Richa Sharma, Citizen News Service, India

The world is no stranger to the deadly TB phenomenon and has been equally terrified of the magnanimous proportion of MDR-TB cases that are being reported globally. MDR-TB is a form of TB in which the bacteria develops resistance to at least isoniazid and rifampicin—the two most powerful antimicrobial drugs used to treat ordinary TB.

What the eye doesn’t see, the mind doesn’t know: Pictorial health warnings

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
The first thing that crosses my mind on seeing smokers is whether they are aware of what that one cigarette stick is doing to their health and to the health  of others. Very often their argument is that, well it is their life and others should mind their own business. But they naively forget that their addiction is affecting other people’s health too and so it is very much their business.

Psychological effects of Asthma

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
When asked to describe her asthma, Rushali (name changed) says, “It is like a bubble that envelopes me and does not let me breathe. I am always so scared of getting an attack, it makes me very sad.” Asthma, a chronic disease of the airway characterized by heightened response of the trachio-bronchial tree to irritants is often considered a nightmare for the people living with this condition. It is marked by frequent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing.

When living becomes a pain: MDR-TB

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
TB is an intimidating word in the world of public health. Even though the disease is centuries old, it was only in 1882 that Dr Robert Koch discovered the TB bacillus—the agent that causes TB. Antibiotics were used against TB for the first time in 1944 after the discovery of streptomycin. But use of this drug alone led to antibiotic resistance that is still a major problem.

Tobacco control for women: We have not come a long way!

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Sometime ago, I saw on the internet the words ‘strong woman’ written against a background of a woman smoking a cigarette. It left a strong impression on my mind and I wondered how a cigarette with some smoke, alongside a woman, can convey ideas of individuality and independence of females. Well, this is how the tobacco industry has been getting to the women for a very long time.

World Cancer Day: We can stop cancer!

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
Cancer, like many other non communicable diseases (NCDs), is preventable, and yet it is sadly one of the leading causes of death worldwide. It claims 8.2 million lives globally and among its various types, lung cancer is considered to be the most fatal with 1.59 million people fall prey to it  every year. In India, 70, 275 cases of lung cancer are reported every year. Tobacco use, alcohol use, physical inactivity are said to be the major risk factors of this deadly disease.

A new year gift: Child friendly drugs to cure paediatric TB

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

TB has been known to mankind since ancient times and has claimed many lives every year since then. Children form a vulnerable category for many infections and TB is no different in this regard. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 million children became infected with TB in 2014 and 140,000 died because of it. Yet children remain largely neglected in this regard.

To breathe is to live : Call for action to tackle pneumonia

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
A walk in a clinic in an urban slum or rural setting is invariably associated with one coming across a parent sitting with their child helping them to breathe through the mouthpiece of a nebulizer machine. Such is the presence of pneumonia cases in developing countries and resource constraint settings.

Action against TB-Diabetes co-epidemic: If not now, then when?

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

The world is threatened by yet another big looming co-epidemic of TB and diabetes. And no, it has not happened overnight-- it has taken its own time to evolve and emerge as a public health emergency. The situation is so very similar to the TB-HIV epidemic and the late response that was meted to it that it scares the policymakers, public health professionals and people across all strata of society to think about the impact that this combination of deadly diseases will have, once it strikes with full force.

Let us beat the blues of the heart

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India
The number of sudden demises of visibly healthy individuals, with no relevant medical history, due to cardiac arrests or heart failures has reportedly escalated in recent times. Cardio vascular diseases, or CVDs as they are more commonly called, seem to have penetrated all layers of society affecting one and all. They are no longer associated with just the supposedly rich, urban, and/or older class of citizens.

TB-HIV: Can we initiate early ART in patients?

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

History is witness to the slow response that was meted out to the gradual rise of TB-HIV co-infection worldwide. It came to be knows as a ‘syndemic’ which refers to the convergence of two or more diseases that act synergistically to magnify the burden of disease. Globally, the figures stand at a whopping 36.9 million HIV affected patients at the end of 2014.

TB-diabetes co-morbidity: A two headed monster

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

The ever-increasing figures of people affected individually with TB or diabetes have been giving nightmares to health care professionals all over the world. So one can imagine the stupefying scenario when these two diseases start appearing together as co-infections. It is likely that diabetes may soon surpass HIV as the most important risk factor for TB, if the looming co-epidemic of TB and diabetes is not dealt with properly.

Xpert MTB/RIF: Will it help end TB ?

Dr Richa Sharma, CNS Correspondent, India

Photo credit: CNS: citizen-news.org

TB continues to scar the face of public health even today with India harboring the highest burden of TB cases in the world. The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report (2014) quotes 21 lakh as the estimated incidence of all forms of TB in India and 60,000 MDR-TB among notified cases. Recently there have been renewed efforts to address the scary upsurge of MDR-TB that is thwarting attempts of TB control in the global and Indian context.