The Truth About TB
Get involved with World TB Day (24 March 2010) and tuberculosis awareness!
TB Alert has just launched a new awareness website, The Truth About TB, supported by the Department of Health. Tuberculosis remains a crucial health issue, with over 8,000 people in the UK developing the illness each year. “With World TB Day coming up on the 24th of March, it’s a great time to increase awareness about TB,” says Elias Phiri, Head of Awareness Programmes at TB Alert.
The new website, www.thetruthabouttb.org, focuses on the stories of individual people who have had TB, and contains everything people need to know about recognising the symptoms and receiving the treatment that cures TB.
World TB Day is all about raising awareness anywhere where people will see it—including in your community. TB Alert can provide free information including multi-lingual posters, DVDs, symptom checker cards, T-shirts, and even balloons.
“Certain communities are more vulnerable to TB,” explains Elias. “Twenty-three percent of people in England who get TB are from the Black African community, and significant number of them develop TB because their immune systems have been weakened by HIV.”
Dr. Ade Adeagbo, Interim CEO of AHPN, stressed that: “Co-infection remains a major challenge and more effort is needed to prevent and support the treatment of the two conditions, hence HIV and tuberculosis support and services need to be joined up for us to achieve better outcomes for African communities in the UK.”
The free awareness materials are available in a variety of formats and are available in the following languages: English, Somali, Gujarati, French, Polish, Portuguese, Arabic, Bengali, Swahili, Tamil, Tigrinya, and Urdu.
For more information or for health advice, please contact Elias on 01273 234028 or email elias.phiri@tbalert.org.
Comment on this post
Please note that we will not expose your email, but we might use it to email you back. Links may be included in your comments but HTML is not permitted.
Comments
TB
Win
10 Apr 2010 03:28
Is TB really a problem in the UK?
TB in the UK
THT Health Professional
14 Apr 2010 17:16
Thank you, Winston, for your question about TB rates in the UK.
TB rates in the UK are on the rise, according to the Health Protection Agency (HPA, 2010), 9153 TB cases were provisionally reported by the end of last and the UK has a rate of 14.9 per 100,000 population, representing a 5.5% increase from 2008. Most cases (92%) have been reported from England and from the African community with ratio of 10.7 to 132 (UK born ratio/Non-UK born ratio) four years go. This may be connected with poor health TB management systems in many sub-Saharan African countries where there are weak screening and treatment follow-ups. HIV burden in the community is high and TB is one of the common opportunistic infections. It is important to note that people who have migrated from countries of high TB burden may already have TB (latent) and not know it. It is important to have an awareness of these condition while making an informed healthy decision.
see: http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1267551047404.
If you have any more questions, please post another comment!