Food Chemistry, Nutrition and Safety

Biography

Biography: Sora Asfaw Desisa

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a long-known illness that has been declared a worldwide public health emergency for the past 30 years(Furin et al., 2019). In 2020, it was the second highest cause of mortality from a single infectious agent after COVID 19, with an estimated 1.5 million deaths. Since TB kills 700,000 women per year and contributes significantly to maternal mortality, it is still a prominent disease among women globally(CDC, 2014). Whether the risk of acquiring active tuberculosis is increased during pregnancy has been varying under debate for a long time. Hippocrates suggested that pregnancy increases the risk of developing active tuberculosis(Royal, 2001). It was thought the same way until the mid-19th century when Grisolle reported the course of the disease is more favorable among non-pregnant women compared to pregnant women(Royal, 2001). Other more recent publications consider no effect of pregnancy on the clinical development of active tuberculosis or even describe pregnant women to be at lower risk for developing active TB (Brassard et al., 2009; Jonsson et al., 2020; Miele et al., 2020; Ormerod, 2001). The Aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence and associated characteristics of women diagnosed with active TB in association to pregnancy and postpartum periods compared with non-pregnant periods. Improved understanding of the significance of pregnancy and its contribution to the development of tuberculosis will optimize tuberculosis case finding and care strategies in women of fertile age. The outcomes will also contribute to better integrating primary care services devoted to maternal health and tuberculosis control, a stated priority of the World Health Organization (WHO). Methods: a cross-sectional study design is performed. Women aged 15-45 years on treatment for TB during the data collection period in the facilities were included. Comparisons between the pregnant and post-partum to the non-pregnant with regard to socioeconomic characteristics and clinical characteristic are done. Result: A total of 362 samples were included. Most of the women (83.98 %) were not pregnant or in postpartum in connection to TB onset, whereas 6.6% of them were in the postpartum 0-6 months at TB onset, followed by pregnant ones which were 5 %. Moreover 4.4 % of them were in postpartum 7-12 months at TB onset. 22.2% of the pregnant women have history of sharing house with active TB patient. Whereas it is only 9.9% among the non-pregnant, 20.8% among postpartum 0-6 month and 12% among postpartum 7-12.
Conclusion: This study indicates the pregnant (22.2%) and early postpartum women (20.8%) are at greater risk of having active TB than the non-pregnant (9.9%) and late postpartum ones (12.5%). when they are exposed to other active TB patients. Thus, pregnant women should be informed on how to protect themselves from other active TB patient in their house and they should be screened for TB during their antenatal care visit. As there is higher proportion of HIV positive patients among pregnant women (27.8%) than non-pregnant (15.4%) and postpartum (13.6%), which indicates that pregnancy contributing to HIV activation of latent TB to active TB. Pregnant HIV positive women should have special care. The higher proportion the active TB women among the postpartum than pregnancy found might be an indication of diagnosis delay during pregnancy.