VSU Hospital organizes talk on tuberculosis

In this year’s 91^st anniversary of the Visayas State University, a lecture, “In Focus: Pulmonary TB - What You Need to Know; TB in the Workplace and TB in Children”, was tackled during the wellness seminar conducted on August 6, 2015 at the VSU Convention Center. This lecture was realized thru the joint efforts of Dr. Elwin Jay V. Yu and Dr. Josephine O. Zafico of the VSU Hospital.

The lecture aimed to review the anatomy and physiology of the lungs, discuss the incidence of tuberculosis in the global and local setting, present the case of tuberculosis in the workplace, discuss the approach, diagnosis and treatment strategies of tuberculosis and discuss briefly what is DOTS.

Resource speakers were Dr. Niño Jessielito N. Doydora, a practicing pulmonologist at Ormoc Doctor’s Hospital, OSPA and Gatchalian Hospital; and Dr. Irma Barbara Guibone, a private practicing pediatrician.

Dr. Doydora discussed that tuberculosis is an illness caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is spread by inhalation of air droplets nuclei released by an infected person through coughing, sneezing, laughing or loud speaking. The signs and symptoms of tuberculosis are significant and unintentional weight loss, fever, bloody sputum (hemoptysis), chest/back pains not referable to any musculoskeletal disorders, easy fatigability or malaise, night sweats and shortness of breath or difficulty of breathing.

On the other hand, Dr. Guibone pointed out, that the signs and symptoms of TB in children, patients below 15 years old will at least have three of the following: coughing/wheezing of two weeks or more, loss of weight, failure to respond to two weeks of appropriate antibiotic therapy for lower respiratory tract infection, failure to regain previous state of health, two weeks after a viral infection, and fatigue. SMCLemos