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TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
Inherent in the biases that health care professionals harbor toward certain patient
populations is the risk of the disparities they may create or contribute to in terms of disease
recognition and burden, timeliness, quality and comprehensiveness of the delivery of health care
and the utilization of resources toward specific populations. Sadly, such clinical bias is the
byproduct of incomplete and dated information, limited clinical experiences, geographic
variations and both institutional and individual proclivities of the persons caring for at risk
populations. Further, diseases like TB raise several issues including stigmatization of infected
individuals, including cultural and economic fallout from acquiring TB, that shape perceptions,
ingrain certain biases and strain ethical standards while subsequently effecting care. As an
example, according to Verma, EG-Upshur, Rea, and Benatar (2004) one central ethical divide
concerning TB control consists of balancing the patient's rights and autonomy with the protection
of the public's health. Given the disease consequences, TB is indeed a serious threat to
communities, which deserve protection from exposure to TB and attention to the means to curtail
its spread. Simultaneously, individuals in liberal democracies maintain the right to personal
autonomy and privacy. Interventions such as directly observed TB therapy, detention and
mandatory treatment entail a substantial reduction of patient autonomy not customarily found in
other areas in clinical medicine. On a larger scale, TB can be viewed as a human rights issue,
raising important questions about equity regarding who suffers the most from the disease and the
global imbalance with regard to disease burden and the implied social compact that the health
care complex and public policy have to alleviate suffering (Verma et al., 2004). Knowledge of
these kinds of misinformation, perceptions, controversies, ethical dilemmas and the individual
and institutional predispositions that flavor the response to and treatment of a disease in such a
TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
vulnerable population are essential to crafting accurate and responsive public health policy as
well as my own individual standards for private practice.
TUBERCULOSIS AWARENESS
7
References
Eller, J. J. (2012). Tuberculosis. In L. Goldman & A. Schafer (Eds.), Goldman's Cecil Textbook
of Medicine (24th ed., pp. 1939-1947). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Publishing.
Herchline, T. E. (2014). Tuberculosis. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com
Parr, J. B., Leonard, M. K., & Blumberg, H. M. (2013). Scientific American Medicine. Hamilton,
ON: Decker Intellectual Properties. Retrieved from http://www.sciammedicine.com
Veenema, T. G. (2013). Disaster Nursing and Emergency Preparedness (3 ed.). New York, NY:
Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Verma, G., EG-Upshur, R., Rea, E., & Benatar, S. R. (2004). Critical reflections on evidence,
ethics and effectiveness in the management of Tuberculosis: Public health and global
perspectives. BMC Medical Ethics, 5(2), . doi:10.1186/1472-6939-5-2
World Health Organization (2010). Global Tuberculosis Control 2010. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/
World Health Organization (2013). Countdown to 2015 global Tuberculosis report 2013
supplement. Retrieved from http://www.WHO_HTM_TB_2013.13_eng.pdf