4 Things To Know About The Long Fight Against TB

Tuberculosis, though curable, is still considered the world's deadliest infectious disease

- Akshita Nanda

In May 2024, a 36-year-old software engineer developed a persistent cough. Doctors prescribed antibiotics, but a few months later, he began coughing up coloured phlegm every day. He also found it harder to do his thrice-weekly runs, taking seven minutes a kilometre, instead of his usual six.

In January, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) and started a six-month course of antibiotics to treat it.

His wife was discovered to have latent TB, where her immune system keeps the infection in check. She was given a four-month course of antibiotics. Colleagues he had been in contact with were also tested for TB.

The patient was told to isolate for three weeks at the start of treatment, to not infect others.

"I was quite worried for my parents, who are in their 60s," he told The Straits Times. "I also realised there were a lot of things I didn't know about TB."

He asked not to be identified by name to limit the number of people who know about his case.

Doctors say that stigma and misunderstanding persist about TB, a bacterial infection which the World Health Organisation (WHO) calls "the world's deadliest infectious disease".

TB is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis and commonly affects the lungs. It is then known as pulmonary TB, which can cause permanent lung damage and breathing problems. The disease spreads when an infectious person with pulmonary TB coughs or sneezes.

Extra-pulmonary TB affects the bones, joints, lymph nodes or other organs.

According to the WHO, each day, over 3,400 people around the world lose their lives to TB, and close to 30,000 people fall ill with it. It is the leading cause of death for those with HIV.

Treatment for TB involves at least six months of taking different antibiotics daily. Patients are usually considered not infectious after a few weeks of treatment.