Week 1: MDR TB

This podcast was about the epidemic tuberculosis and specifically the multi-drug resistant version that is much harder to treat. TB is a very treatable disease that can usually be cured in 6 months. However, if people misuse their antibiotic treatment then MDR TB can result. We should be concerned about this because once MDR TB occurs then the cost of medication is more expensive and treatment will last as long as 2 years. Although this is a rare disease in our country we still have to be concerned about it. This is an epidemic which means that it occurs everywhere in the world. All it takes is for one person traveling to the states from a foreign country where the disease is more prevalent to infect mass amounts of people. An important thing to remember about antibiotic treatments is that most of them do not actually kill the bacteria that have infected a patient, they only slow them down to allow the body's own immune system time to take action. People may begin to feel better and stop taking their medication even though they are directed to take it until it is out. When this happens, bacteria that had a resistance to the antibiotic have a chance to reproduce and spread through the body, rendering the previously prescribed treatment useless. Direct observation treatments are the best way to make sure that patients are not misusing their antibiotics. This type of treatment can and is used for various other diseases to make sure that drug resistant forms do not emerge.