1. Joanne Flynn
2. Shabanna Khader.
I first emailed Ms. Khader the questions:
1.Do you think that the disease will become a pandemic in the future? If so explain how.
The bacteria that causes the infection Tuberculosis currently is believed to infect 2 billion people. The vaccine that is used in many countries does not provide very good protection. In addition, the bacteria are evolving to become drug resistant to currently available drugs. So it is feared that we will not have the necessary treatments available to treat the large proportion of people who are infected with the bacteria and can progress to showing disease symptoms.
2.Have you known anyone personally with tb?
Yes-My aunt was diagnosed with TB
3. Has there been a time where you couldn't get past a certain problem while researching the disease?
Yes-my lab researches how to develop better vaccines against TB and we are currently aware that several of the newly discovered vaccine against TB does not improve protection against TB. Thus, we need to think about new ideas how to research vaccines for TB.
4. How has the disease affect your life?
The research we do is focused on finding a vaccine for TB-so we think about the disease all the time.
5. What are some things people who come down with tb think they have?
The symptoms for TB are fever, weight loss, coughing , chills etc. People with pneumonia may exhibit similar symptoms.
6. How many years have you spent researching tuberculosis
12 years
7. In your opinion, what is the best ways of avoiding tuberculosis
The best way for avoiding TB is staying fit and having good immunity.
8. In what population of people is the disease most commonly found
The disease is more prevalent in countries where the public health system is not very efficient and in areas where HIV infection is prevalent.
9. Is there a limitation to what we can understand about the disease
Yes-we don't understand why some infected people get clinical disease while the others carry the infection but do not have disease.
10. At the moment, where is the research going? Is anyone working on a vaccine to cure the disease?
There are several vaccine stat are in human clinical trails-but is not clear if these vaccines will be able to prevent TB.
2.Have you known anyone personally with tb?
Yes-My aunt was diagnosed with TB
3. Has there been a time where you couldn't get past a certain problem while researching the disease?
Yes-my lab researches how to develop better vaccines against TB and we are currently aware that several of the newly discovered vaccine against TB does not improve protection against TB. Thus, we need to think about new ideas how to research vaccines for TB.
4. How has the disease affect your life?
The research we do is focused on finding a vaccine for TB-so we think about the disease all the time.
5. What are some things people who come down with tb think they have?
The symptoms for TB are fever, weight loss, coughing , chills etc. People with pneumonia may exhibit similar symptoms.
6. How many years have you spent researching tuberculosis
12 years
7. In your opinion, what is the best ways of avoiding tuberculosis
The best way for avoiding TB is staying fit and having good immunity.
8. In what population of people is the disease most commonly found
The disease is more prevalent in countries where the public health system is not very efficient and in areas where HIV infection is prevalent.
9. Is there a limitation to what we can understand about the disease
Yes-we don't understand why some infected people get clinical disease while the others carry the infection but do not have disease.
10. At the moment, where is the research going? Is anyone working on a vaccine to cure the disease?
There are several vaccine stat are in human clinical trails-but is not clear if these vaccines will be able to prevent TB.
Here Are Ms. Flynns Answers:
1. Do you think that the disease will become a pandemic in the future? If so explain how.
Probably not in the true sense of the work pandemic due to public health measures in place in many developed countries, like the US. TB isendemic to many countries, however, and the emergence of multi- or extensively drug resistant TB does pose concerns for transmission and for infections all over the world. These strains are very difficult or impossible to treat and can spread to anyone. But in general, TB is a disease of poor people.
2. Have you known anyone personally with tb?
I have met people with TB but not to know them personally.
3. Has there been a time where you couldn’t get past a certain problem while researching the disease?
Many many times. Sometimes the time is not right to solve a certain problem—you don't have enough money or the right tools haven't been developed yet. Right now we are trying to develop a "natural transmission" model of TB and it isn't working. But we don't give up and we keep working around the problem so we can tackle it.
4. How has the disease affect your life?
For people who have TB it can be debilitating. The patients lose weight, are tired, cough all the time, and can cough up blood, and run a low-grade fever. The disease is very slowly progressing, so it takes a while for people to realize that they might have TB. If their infection strain is drug sensitive, they have to take drugs (4 of them for 2 months, and 2 for 4 months for a total of a minimum of SIX months of treatment). If they have drug resistant TB, the standard drugs don't work and the patient has to take what we call second line drugs, that don't work as well. If the patient has MDR or XDR TB they may have to live in a hospital for months to years so that they don't spread it to other people.
5. What are some things people who come down with tb think they have?
"just a cold", "just a cough", cancer
6. How many years have you spent researching tuberculosis
24
7. In your opinion, what is the best ways of avoiding tuberculosis
Well, that's a good question. The more you are exposed, the more chance you have of getting it. The BEST way is to wear a special mask (called an N95) but that is not very practical except in a hospital environment (like a TB hospital). The risk of exposure is very low in the US and most developed countries, and much higher in developing countries.
8. In what population of people is the disease most commonly found
Poor people! The disease is most common in India, Africa (especially South Africa), and the countries of the Former Soviet Union (where there is a lot of drug resistance), as well as some surprising Asian countries: China, of course, but also Korea.
9. Is there a limitation to what we can understand about the disease
The biggest limitation is that in humans it is very difficult to study the lungs themselves, which is where the disease is. However, we can and have developed model systems that help us understand the lungs, and imaging systems for looking inside the human lungs to see what happens.
10.At the moment where is the research going? Are they working on a vaccine to cure the disease
There are several areas of research: understanding how the bacterium persists in the host, how the host does or does not kill the bacterium, and on new drugs for treatment (that would make the treatment shorter), understanding why some hosts are infected without symptoms or any adverse effects ("latent TB") while others develop active TB, exploring how HIV makes TB much much worse. These are only some of the areas of active research. There are several groups working on a vaccine to PREVENT the disease. That is the ultimate goal. There was a failed human trial of a new vaccine, but several other clinical trials are starting soon.
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