Tuberculosis is one of the main diseases African Americans have been fighting for many decades. The nature of the spread of TB has been one of the major limitations towards eradicating the disease among specific populations. For instance, the diseases spread much after in overcrowded places. An empirical study done on TB in overpopulated places in the US has been giving similar results implying that TB is prevalent among African Americans (Stewart et al., 2018). Despite many people being at higher risk of getting TB, some people are at higher risk compared to others in the community. Besides, economic, demographic, and social factors also affect the risk of a person attracting TB. Therefore, the purpose of this discussion is to define the problem and research methods effective in studying Tuberculosis among African Americans.
Problem
Environmental Selected
This study will take place around homes inhabited by African Americans. Besides, it will be targeting HIV patients as a section of susceptible persons as the disease is the main cause of death among HIV-positive patients. HIV-associated tuberculosis cases and deaths are majorly in the African regions, with eastern and southern countries bearing the major global burden (Marks et al., 2019). This situation implies that TB has been causing more deaths in African as compared to other countries because of the increased population of HIV patients in Africa. These facts about the prevalence of TB in African countries support the study of TB among African Americans. The population of TB patients in the US is also high among African Americans, implying that there is an underlying cause of the disease among this population (Alsan et al., 2020). The increase in the number of people dying from the disease in the US has been worrying, and it calls for an urgent need to solve the health problem that has remained a menace in the country for many years.
Summary of the Problem in Terms of Person, Place and Time
Universal health is affected by several diseases, both communicable and non-communicable. Communicable diseases are normally responsible for various epidemics in a given region, and one of the examples of these diseases is tuberculosis. TB is a transmittable disease that typically attacks the lungs and may spread to various body parts such as the brain and spine. It is a bacterial infection and is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The mode of spread is mainly through the air (Stewart et al., 2018). However, tuberculosis is always not easily transmitted since the bacteria responsible for it spread and mature slowly, and an individual has to spend a lot of time around the infected person for it to be transmitted. This explains the fact that this disease normally advances quickly among family members, friends, and workmates.
Tuberculosis slowly manifests in the victim and, at first, may not have any symptoms. However, as the infection advances, the victim presents with symptoms such as chest pain, coughing blood or mucus, fatigue, weight loss, fever, much sweat at night, and loss of appetite. This is disease is a major concern since it is a major cause of death worldwide. According to the research done by the world health organization released in 2014, tuberculosis is the major cause of death across the world. It accounts for about 9.6 million new cases and about 1.5 million deaths annually (Tsang et al., 2017). Again, more than two-thirds of the worldwide TB burden is in Africa and Asia. Besides, countries like China, Indonesia, and India have a 43% of the global TB burden. The main common locations share in common is population. Overpopulated countries are at a higher risk of suffering from TB as compared to the less populated countries in the world.
The duration of exposure and spread of TB among patients is low, causing many people to attract the disease within a short time. The increase in the number of people dying and contracting the disease in the US has affected the country in numerous ways. For instance, Tuberculosis has affected the UN millennium development goals, especially goal six: countering HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases. Due to the annual rise of new cases of tuberculosis in the US, the United Nations millennium goal target 6.c that aimed at reversing the disease by 2015 had not been achieved to the required extent. Success treatment rates have also been sustained since 2007, although multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which was a result of inadequate treatment, still poses major concerns (Bayer& Castro, 2017). This emergence and spread of drug resistance were due to inappropriate regimens, inadequate doses, limited availability of quality-assured pharmaceutical products, and also negligence by experts to support patient negligence. This situation implies that the US health care research a
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