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Tuberculosis in China’s floating population
Officially, over 270,000 people die from tuberculosis (TB) in China every year. The real number is likely double, hidden among China’s 140 million migrant workers, many of whom are silent carriers.
Crowded, ignored, exhausted and transient, these migrant workers could be the tipping point for an explosion of drug-resistant TB in China. It festers and spreads in the bodies of migrant workers living in the crushed conditions of China’s urban centers. These workers then carry the burden of this preventable and curable but deadly and infectious disease back to their rural homes and families.
The official rate to cure common TB is 150 Yuan (US$20), or 10% of a migrant worker’s average monthly salary. A burden most can bear. By comparison, the official rate for drug resistant TB is a death sentence for the worker and his or her family. At 20,000 Yuan (US$2,600), the victim will quietly take the disease to the grave, infecting 10-15 people in every year he clings to life. Where the stigma of infection means job loss and social ostracism, it is no wonder that the official census cannot capture the true numbers.
Prevention is the key to this scourge – through education and basic methods of prevention such as good hand hygiene, proper masking of the face, and cheap and effective diagnostic tools for determining infection. Government and the enterprises that employ these people could well afford such measures. If not for the good of its citizens and workers, then at least to improve efficiency and productivity.
Filligent has developed the BioFriendTM BioMask for precisely this task. It filters out 99.9% of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, without affecting breathability (essential for those whose lungs are already compromised or who work in labour-intensive industries). It then kills the bacteria within minutes of contact. It is effective, comfortable and affordable. Its self-sanitizing surfaces can reduce the spread of the disease to others. It comes in small-sizes.
Coupled with this innovation, Filligent has developed a special textile (called the BioFriendTM BioCloth) that can be used to dry-sanitize hands and surfaces. Breaking disease transmission through touch is a critical element to disease control – be it tuberculosis, enteroviruses, hepatitis or even sexually-transmitted diseases such as herpes. Where clean water and clean lavatories are a luxury, a product like this, which is cheap, easy-to-use, washable and reusable, could profoundly affect the lives of these workers and their children.
Knowledge is power. Filligent is developing a cheap TB diagnostic tool for workers to use themselves. Similar to a pregnancy test, it will empower the worker to take action and provide him and his family with a variety of health choices that were previously denied, nipping in the bud the transmission of this volatile disease. Filligent is assessing other major infectious diseases for the development of similar diagnostic tools.
Tuberculosis infection and transmission
World Health Organization: Fact Sheet No. 104, Revised March 2007
- Someone in the world is newly infected with TB bacilli every second.
- Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.
- 5-10% of people who are infected with TB bacilli (but who are not infected with HIV) become sick or infectious at some time during their life.
- People with HIV and TB infection are much more likely to develop TB.