People who have had direct contact with a person with tuberculosis might be eligible for a free limited latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) test, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday on World Tuberculosis Day.
Starting from yesterday to May 24, people who have had direct contact with a person with tuberculosis — which has been confirmed by a local health department — would be eligible for a free LTBI test, limited to 10,324 people, the CDC said.
Those who test positive would be eligible for government-funded LTBI treatment, it said.
Photo: Lin Chih-yi, Taipei Times
The centers has consistently promoted tuberculosis prevention and pledged to work toward eliminating the disease in Taiwan, CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
It also continues to strive for necessary funding and to collaborate with different fields to carry out control and prevention policies, he added.
The theme of this year’s World Tuberculosis Day was “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver,” he said.
Starting with a 10-year program in 2006 aiming to reduce tuberculosis cases by half, which was followed by a program in 2016 to eliminate the disease by 2035, the incidence rate of the disease has significantly declined over the past 20 years, Chuang said.
“The incidence of newly diagnosed tuberculosis has fallen from 73 cases per 100,000 population in 2005 to 27 cases per 100,000 population last year — a reduction rate of 63 percent,” Chuang said.
The CDC has also been promoting the use of nucleic acid amplification tests on suspected tuberculosis cases for earlier diagnosis and treatment, he said, adding that finding people with LTBI and getting proper treatment before it progresses to active tuberculosis is crucial.
“Last year, 115,547 people received LTBI tests, with 13,791 among them testing positive and beginning LTBI treatment,” he said.
While the incidence rate of tuberculosis has significantly fallen over the years, new cases are diagnosed every year, including more than 6,000 people who were newly diagnosed last year, Chuang said.
Tuberculosis is a chronic global infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and it is mainly transmitted through the air, such as by inhaling respiratory droplets from an infected person after they cough, talk, laugh or sing, Taiwan Anti-Tuberculosis Association president Yu Ming-chih (余明治) said.
Many people with the disease are asymptomatic during a long incubation period, making it difficult to diagnose, he said.
However, if people develop common symptoms of tuberculosis, including chronic coughing for over two weeks or even coughing up mucus or blood, chest pain, difficulty breathing, night sweats and unexplained weight loss, they should seek medical attention and get tested as soon as possible, Yu said.
If they are not diagnosed with multidrug resistant tuberculosis, most people only need to take medication for two weeks to significantly reduce contagiousness, but they should still follow a doctor’s prescription and go through at least six months of treatment, he added.
A person with LTBI is infected, but has not developed symptoms, Taiwan Society of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases chairman Wang Jann-Yuan (王振源) said.
The incubation period can be as short as three months and as long as 30 or 50 years, and the disease can progress to active tuberculosis when the person’s immune system becomes weaker, Wang said.
With advanced medical technology, it is easy and fast to test for LTBI through a blood test, he said.
People who have had direct contact with a person who has tuberculosis are at higher risk of infection, while people with diabetes, kidney disease or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are also more prone to infection, he said.
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