Vaccine to prevent tuberculosis

In ancient times, tuberculosis was called pulmonary consumption. It was considered a terminal illness at that time. The medical technology was not as advanced as it is now. Now tuberculosis can be cured. In order to avoid infection with tuberculosis when many people were young, they would be vaccinated against tuberculosis. This way, they can produce antibodies in their bodies and will not be infected when they come into contact with tuberculosis patients in the future.

Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis infecting the lungs. It is the most common type of tuberculosis and is usually caused by inhaling droplets containing tuberculosis bacteria sprayed by the infectious source when coughing, sneezing, or talking loudly.

In the face of tuberculosis, everyone is susceptible. Children are often vaccinated against tuberculosis. So how many years should tuberculosis be prevented?

The effectiveness of tuberculosis vaccination varies from person to person, but repeated vaccinations have no effect. The vaccine to prevent tuberculosis (BCG) is actually a method of artificially infecting people with tuberculosis bacteria (attenuated or inactivated tuberculosis bacteria) to make people produce antibodies and thus resist the invasion of tuberculosis bacteria. As long as adolescents have not been infected with tuberculosis (PPD test negative), they can be vaccinated with BCG.

tuberculosis

The protective effectiveness of BCG is not 100%. The vaccine is effective in children but not in adults. Because it is an active vaccine, it should be avoided when injected into people who lack immunity. The vaccination method is intradermal injection; BCG only needs to be injected once, and injecting it twice or more will not enhance its effectiveness.

It is recommended that everyone should start from daily life to prevent tuberculosis. The preventive measures are:

1. Control the source of infection: detect and treat it promptly. When there is a highly contagious pulmonary tuberculosis patient in the family, it is necessary to find out whether other family members are also infected with tuberculosis. Other family members should go to tuberculosis prevention and control agencies for examination in time to ensure early detection and treatment. Especially the elderly and children have low body resistance and are more susceptible to tuberculosis.

2. Cut off the route of transmission: spitting is prohibited. The patient's sputum, daily necessities, and surrounding items should be disinfected and properly handled. The room can be disinfected with ultraviolet light, the tableware used by the patient can be boiled, and the bedding can be exposed to the sun. The room should be kept ventilated and the air clean, and students should take frequent baths and change clothes.

3. Improve the ability to resist infection and protect oneself, establish good hygiene and living habits, do not smoke, do not drink alcohol, take frequent baths, ensure adequate sleep, eat a balanced diet, have proper nutrition, strengthen physical exercise, and prevent colds.

In short, prevention of tuberculosis requires more attention, mainly by having less contact with patients, especially those with infectious tuberculosis. At the same time, you should pay attention to exercising more to enhance your own resistance, which can basically achieve the goal of preventing tuberculosis.