World Tuberculosis Day Recognized in Belize
Today Belize observed World Tuberculosis Day. In an effort to create public awareness of the disease, several fairs were set up across municipalities to bring information to the people about the fight against T.B. and the efforts so far to bring an end to the disease. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Growing up, you may have heard your grandmother say, “Noh knock di baby ina ih back cause yo wah give ahn T.B.” While that being the cause of the disease is a myth, tuberculosis still continues to affect Belize. Globally, ten million persons fell ill with T.B. in 2020, with one point five million people dying from the disease. In Belize, there were seventy-three new cases detected in 2021 in persons between the ages of fifteen and fifty-four; four persons died in Belize District. Belize, Cayo and Stann Creek were the districts most affected.
Nurse Susan Canto
Nurse Susan Canto, Chest Clinic Rural Health Nurse, Cleopatra White Polyclinic
“Tuberculosis is a disease that is caused by bacteria. It is transmitted through the air from a person that is positive and you get it through inhalation. What a lot of people don’t know is that whenever they inhale the T.B. germ, it can be in the body and can be dormant for the rest of their lives and they didn’t know. But it can also turn into the T.B. disease and people are not aware of that. People think that T.B. is only of the lungs, but we can have T.B. from almost any part of the body. You can have it in your bones, you can have it in any one of your organs – your heart, your kidney – you can have it even on your skin, in your genitals, in your eye or your mouth. People like to think because you have T.B. you have H.I.V. or because yo have H.I.V. yo have T.B. It’s not like that. They do work hand-in-hand, but the thing is that if you have H.I.V., you have more chances of contracting [T.B.]. So we screen everybody that has H.I.V. and make sure that they get prophylactic so that if they have the bacteria in their body that it does not develop into the disease.
Primary and secondary students came out in Belize City. And in Belmopan, American Northwest University held its special event, welcoming school children to find out more about the disease. Medical students even conducted free tests.
Mystery Furtado
Mystery Furtado, C.E.O., American Northwest University
“We have our first year medical students who put together an amazing presentation on what is tuberculosis, bringing awareness about tuberculosis and most importantly, what do they plan to do; what does the future of Belize looks like as it relates to tuberculosis. What we are offering is free T.B. testing for adults only and blood pressure testing by our amazing third year students.”
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has a national T.B. program to reduce the number of cases through early detection and diagnosis. So what are some of the symptoms?
Nurse Susan Canto
“The first one you would hear people talk about is coughing. They would cough and it would sometimes have blood in it. You would have fever especially in the evening, night sweat, chills, loss of weight, and usually this is because they have a loss of appetite because of the sickness. And for the extra pulmonary, where it is not the one in the lungs, they would also have pain in the area where they would have the T.B.”
Children are generally inoculated with a vaccine to prevent T.B., but for those who have contracted the disease – whether that may be the latent or active case – it is curable. Effective drug supply and management at all treatment levels are available.
Nurse Susan Canto
“We have treatment and the treatment is free. The treatment and all the tests that are done at the chest clinic because in the whole country, we have area that the Ministry of Health has that we attend to people with tuberculosis. In the districts and the towns, the villages, the Maternal and Child Health Section or the Family Health Section takes care of that. The treatment is usually for six months. It is a very intensive treatment and they have to take the treatment every day. It might seem like a lengthy time, but they get cured. With that treatment they have to come to the clinic to get the treatment.”
The theme for this year’s World Tuberculosis Day is “Invest to End T.B. Save Lives.” Duane Moody for News Five.
