Mother to Child Tuberculosis Effect: The Unnoticed Threat

Submitted by Linda Lilian (owamazima) about 7 months ago

She had tuberculosis and had just started her treatment, when her little son also HIV+, was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Amooti a mother of two in Fort Portal had obviously not anticipated this or willed it, but there it was before her. How had this happened?

According to Dr. Kizito Mugenyi of Virika hospital in Fort Portal tuberculosis is airborne and is transmitted when some one coughs or even laughs letting out little spit droplets, this is almost inevitable in the case of mother to child relation, in a nursing and nurturing condition.

“ Pregnancy because of stress factor can trigger tuberculosis,” Dr. Kizito argues, adding, that sometimes tuberculosis develops after delivery due to the lowered immunity in women who sometimes have bleed and have not been feeding well. “If women have not been tested or started on ARV’s to boost there immunity then they could easily get tuberculosis, ” he notes indicating that the biggest risk is when a mother is breast feeding and has the kind of tuberculosis that causes coughing.

The New York State Department of Health points out “tuberculosis is spread through the air when a person with untreated pulmonary TB coughs or sneezes. Prolonged exposure to a person with untreated TB usually is necessary for infection to occur.” In an environment where a mother has to nurse a child and also share a bed or bedroom with her children, the tuberculosis risk gets higher considering this fact. However this is something often taken unrealistically, seldom will one hear of mothers taking tuberculosis tests?

In a group of 40 when asked who would test for tuberculosis only one person put up his hand. This indicates the low level of tuberculosis concern among people in Uganda. Tuberculosis is probably one of the last diseases that cross a Ugandan mind, even in the actuality of medical check up for physical fitness, yet it is real to our lives and environment. In a family it becomes a threat, both mother and father have a task to safeguard their children from infection and thus have the responsibility to ensure check up and proper treatment. This is lacking in many Ugandan families where tuberculosis is taken literally.

“That is why we have PMTCT where we explain to mothers about HIV/AIDS and other infections like tuberculosis and how these affect their pregnancies,” Dr. Kizito points out. This makes emphasis for mother’s caution, in pregnancy and precaution, in child nurturing. “There is now emphasis on people testing for HIV/AIDS also testing for tuberculosis and those with tuberculosis testing for HIV/AIDS as well,” he adds.

Keywords: child HIV/AIDS mother parents PMTCT TB tuberculosis

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