WOMEN'S ISSUES: Tuberculosis in Women

WOMEN'S ISSUES: Tuberculosis in Women

Being Alive; November 1992
Nancy MacNeil

It is common knowledge that there is now a multi-drug resistant strain of TB which has resulted in very high death rates in people with HIV. There have been calls for quarantine and a view that resistant TB's appearance and spread has been "caused" by people not taking their medications properly.

The truth is that it has been caused by the elimination of TB screening and treatment programs, by the fact that there are so many people living in poverty without adequate health care and in shelters with no ventilation systems or TB screening and treatment programs. Also, several drugs which could be used are no longer manufactured in the US because they were not profitable.

People who are HIV+ often don't show up as having TB when a skin test is used. There should be a chest X-ray and a sputum test or other cultures. In women disseminated TB can show up as genital infections of various types. Women also get tubercular P.I.D. (We urge women to check for these types of TB.)
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