Hello all – I’ve been lurking here for a while and I really appreciate all of the knowledge and experience shared here. Thank you! I was compelled to post today because I have a rather urgent concern.
Many of us would love to travel to interesting places and even make important contributions to those places where people are suffering, and I think that is wonderful. My concern is this: the medications we must take make us immune-compromised, which makes us vulnerable to tuberculosis infection. This is actually VERY serious. Of all the diseases we should worry about when we travel, this is the big one. TB kills, and it is a hard way to die. Normal TB is curable, although the treatment is not pleasant at all.
However, while normal TB is curable (most of the time for healthy people), nowadays, increasingly prevalent multiple drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) presents a very serious health risk. I do not want to sound alarmist, but I do believe there is a storm brewing on the horizon. More and more people are taking biologics for a variety of illnesses at the very moment that MDR-TB incidents are increasing and we are all becoming more mobile. It would be awful if any of us got TB in any form, and it would be just as awful if we contributed to a global pandemic of TB by spreading the disease when we come back home.
I’m not a doctor, but I traveled a lot in the third world before I was diagnosed, and I’ve seen first-hand how serious TB is.
The thread on travelling with crohns is very valuable, but I wanted to highlight this important travel issue. So, I am hoping that this thread might provide an opportunity for the very smart folks here to discuss safe ways to travel and effective ways to minimize the risk of contracting TB when we go especially to third world countries. Perhaps we could share information about what happens if we get TB (how would that effect our disease course and our treatment options), the rates of TB in various parts of the world, our risk of contracting TB in various places of the world, and so on?
Even though we should not allow crohns to limit us, we should also be responsible and ensure that our traveling does not endanger others. I hope we can share insights, knowledge, and suggestions about safe and responsible travel here.
I do not usually post on forums, so please let me know if this thread should be posted elsewhere. Thanks!
Many of us would love to travel to interesting places and even make important contributions to those places where people are suffering, and I think that is wonderful. My concern is this: the medications we must take make us immune-compromised, which makes us vulnerable to tuberculosis infection. This is actually VERY serious. Of all the diseases we should worry about when we travel, this is the big one. TB kills, and it is a hard way to die. Normal TB is curable, although the treatment is not pleasant at all.
However, while normal TB is curable (most of the time for healthy people), nowadays, increasingly prevalent multiple drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) presents a very serious health risk. I do not want to sound alarmist, but I do believe there is a storm brewing on the horizon. More and more people are taking biologics for a variety of illnesses at the very moment that MDR-TB incidents are increasing and we are all becoming more mobile. It would be awful if any of us got TB in any form, and it would be just as awful if we contributed to a global pandemic of TB by spreading the disease when we come back home.
I’m not a doctor, but I traveled a lot in the third world before I was diagnosed, and I’ve seen first-hand how serious TB is.
The thread on travelling with crohns is very valuable, but I wanted to highlight this important travel issue. So, I am hoping that this thread might provide an opportunity for the very smart folks here to discuss safe ways to travel and effective ways to minimize the risk of contracting TB when we go especially to third world countries. Perhaps we could share information about what happens if we get TB (how would that effect our disease course and our treatment options), the rates of TB in various parts of the world, our risk of contracting TB in various places of the world, and so on?
Even though we should not allow crohns to limit us, we should also be responsible and ensure that our traveling does not endanger others. I hope we can share insights, knowledge, and suggestions about safe and responsible travel here.
I do not usually post on forums, so please let me know if this thread should be posted elsewhere. Thanks!
