Incidence of TB in A Tribal Village - A Case Study

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a social problem as a medical problem. If the society does not lead in addressing the problem, doctors cannot go alone, no matter how effective, elaborate programmes and policies are. Tuberculosis is one of the chronic and dangerous wasting diseases. Most of the countries as well as the Government of India is also making all out efforts to fight T.B in the population. The tribal people of Andhra Pradesh agency are no exception to the disease. The main aim of this study is a quick appraisal of the nature and incidence of T.B in a tribal village having outside contacts. The household is taken as the unit of the survey. Two schedules, one for the village and the other for the household were prepared. The field work was undertaken during the months of September and October, 1971. Irlapalli Polavaram village of Rampachodavaram T.D Block, in East Godavari District was selected for the study. All the tribal of the village belong to Koya Dora tribe. The study reveals that out of a total population of 382, there are 135 persons below age of 10 and above 60 years considered to be non-susceptible to T.B and consequently 247 people constituting 5.66% to the susceptible. The percentage of affected males (5.91) is roughly 4 times that of the affected females (1.53). The incidence of the disease shows a gradual rise as the age advances, except the age group 41-50. The study shows that the disease is more prevalent in households without proper sanitary conditions. The probability of exposure to infection is more among joint families when comparatively nuclear families. The incidence of T.B is slightly higher among families constituted of consanguineous marriages. All the affected are smokers, no non-smoker is affected. The tribals are still shy to visit hospitals in far off places. Most of them expressed the view that the staff in the Government Hospitals, will not pay any attention towards them. Most of the patients and their family members are against isolation of the affected as kinship plays a dominant role in their economic, social and religious activities. The members of the poor tribal family cannot afford to have more pairs of clothes and separate utensils for eating and drinking. Indiscriminate spitting in and around the house by all the family members enhance chances of polluting food water and air with infectious germs, such practices offer vast scope for spreading the disease to other family members. Their insufficient and imbalanced diet is another causative factor for lack of natural resistance to disease. The hold of superstitious and well-established unhealthy practices cannot be wiped out overnight. However, concerted efforts should be made to minimize the hold of these superstitious and unhealthy practices through persistent propaganda and persuasion of the tribal on the advantages of taking modern medicine at the earliest sign of the disease. Health education is the pre-requisite to make the tribal understand the nature of the disease.