Tuberculosis: Coming Soon? Part 1

As is common, I awoke about 3:30 this morning, but I didn’t want to get up yet.  I lay in bed hoping to go back to sleep, without much success.  So instead of getting up, I started working through this article in my head.

I’ve seen a lot of hand-wringing with the recent tuberculosis news and even received personal communications revealing the fear people are experiencing with this. 

As people who prepare for the worst, we should be reserving true fear for the truly fearful events in our lives.  For me, that’s a wildfire that starts immediately west of my house.  God gives us that gift of fear so that we leave a dangerous situation quickly. 

In scripture He has also told us, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.”  So here we have our wildfire evacuation plan practiced and totes already packed, should they ever be needed.

Tuberculosis is not a wildfire, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, or tornado.  Panic and stress will not help.  It’s not an emergency.  It is something to become more familiar with so that we can prevent it from affecting our families.

The reported tuberculosis outbreaks in Kansas and in the UK should come as no surprise to any of us.  In fact, the only thing that surprises me about this news is that it didn’t happen sooner.  It was absolutely inevitable and readily apparent to even a casual student of history that this would be the outcome.  So we prepared, first by researching and writing an article, and then by sharing it with like-minded family and friends. 

Click here for the original article. 

Now what do we need to add that wasn’t covered there?  I tried, and failed, to remember which conventional antibiotics are used to treat TB.  So a quick search revealed the answer.  The reason I couldn’t remember them is that they are not commonly stocked medications:

• Isoniazid
• Rifampin
• Pyrazinamide
• Ethambutol

They are typically administered for 6-12 months.  Drug-resistant TB may require stronger medications and treatment lasting up to 2.5 years.

The first two drugs in the list aren’t sold by All Day Chemist.  However, AllFamilyPharma.com (US-based, for those who care) carries rifampin.  It’s expensive.  The latter two must be taken with the first two to be effective. 

I then checked what was historically used to treat TB, when synthetic antibiotics were first produced.  Streptomycin, an aminoglycoside, was used early on, but it has some serious side effects for many.[1]  Para-aminosalicylic acid was also used, and discontinued for the same reason.  So none of the antibiotics used historically or currently are ones we normally stock.  Not good. 

And it is not easy to obtain and stock a good supply.  Even if you could, it would be expensive. 

How are we going to deal with this?  What do the popular off-grid medicine texts suggest?

As tuberculosis is an airborne disease, masks are effective in preventing transmission.  A tuberculosis patient must always wear a mask.[2]  So should anyone coming into contact with the patient.  There is a vaccine for this disease.[3] The phlegm is red or pink (the same can be true of pneumonia, heart failure, lung abscess, and lung cancer).[4]  Of all the off-grid texts in my library, Where There Is No Doctor (I have the 1992 edition) addresses the treatment of tuberculosis best, with six full pages devoted to patient management, disease prevention, and drug cocktails.    

I read in that article on the outbreak in Kansas that TB patients are permitted to go back to work/school/circulate in society after being treated for a week.  That thought does not give me warm fuzzies.  Dr. Joseph Alton indicates patients should be on the medications at least two weeks before returning to normal life.[5]  I’d be a heckuva lot more cautious with my family.  Insist on separate sleeping quarters and wearing a mask for at least a month.  I’d have a monitor checking that they take every single dose on time.

Now for the good news:

1.  This is not emergency situation. 

2.  Only about 5-10% of people infected with tuberculosis progress to developing clinical disease, and usually years pass between infection and clinical manifestations developing.  Years.  The elderly, HIV patients, those with other infections, and the malnourished are at greatest risk for developing clinical illness with TB.[6]  Sadly, we can’t avoid getting old.  We can avoid HIV and do our best to avoid other infections and diseases, and provide nutritious food. 

3.  Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a Gram-positive bacteria that grows well in place with a lot of oxygen.  That’s one reason why tuberculosis sanatoria were located in high mountains in the West.  The high altitudes not only have less oxygen, they also have more sunshine, also found to be effective to treating TB.  Patients were also provided with good food (another key to successful treatment) and ordered to rest.  And many patients did recover, and without the use of any antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals.

4.  Vitamin C works synergistically with antibiotics.  Perhaps that was one reason why good food was so found to be so essential to treating tuberculosis.  I believe that it would also work well with herbs for treating TB.

5.  Note the repeated emphasis on good, nutritious food.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2. 

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[1] Joseph Alton, Survival Medicine Handbook, 4^th Edition, 2021, 83.

[2] Joseph Alton, Survival Medicine Handbook, 4^th Edition, 2021, 587.

[3] Cynthia Koelker, Armageddon Medicine, 2012, 95. 

[4] Joseph Alton, Survival Medicine Handbook, 4^th Edition, 2021, 236.

[5] Joseph Alton, Survival Medicine Handbook, 4^th Edition, 2021, 83.

[6] Survival and Austere Medicine, 3^rd Edition, 2017, 117-18.