Tuberculosis in South Africa

By: Kai Hastings and Hannah Hansen

Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection affecting the lungs, can be a dangerous, even deadly
disease, especially to those who have no way to protect themselves against it. Spread
through the air by cough tuberculosis can easily be spread once someone is infected
with it, making the disease even more dangerous. For people with active TB common
symptoms are coughing, unintentional weight loss, fatigue, fever, night sweats, chills,

and loss of appetite. In addition, the region most commonly affected by tuberculosis arel
Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and is most common in people living in poor
condition and those with weak immune systems, like those with HIVs.
Though we cant eradicate Tuberculosis from the planet it is a treatable disease, if you
just have the infection you can be treated and if you have the disease you can take
prescribed medications to get rid of it. The problem is then that people with little money
or poor access to health care facilities (or both) are not able to attain the medicine
needed to get better. My partner and I believe that the only way to solve this unfair
problem is to communicate awareness and raise money to help pay for treatments in
poor countries like Africa. Already, there are organizations to help the problem of TB
such as:
Stop TB Partnership
CORE Group
ACTION
To fundraise for this project my partner and I decided to sell around a common running
trail over the weekend and on monday. We had a lot of free earbuds generously given
to us by Maxell corporation and we decided to using them to fundraise for or project. We
were able to sell three earbud for a total of $25 which will go to helping a charity we
have yet to decide on. We found it fun to fundraise and had a good time getting people
to buy the random earbuds.

Reflections:
Hannah Hansen
As I began this project I wasnt really sure about how it would end up, in all truth I
didnt even know that much about tuberculosis when I started this project. My partner,
Kai, had been the one to suggest it and I had vaguely nodded and tried to act smart.
later, though I learned about how bad the disease was for places like Africa and yet how
treatable it was. That got me into the project, I wanted to raise awareness to this
unfortunate disease.
Due to my absent knowledge on this assignment this project was a big learning
experience for me and I ended it with a better understanding than I thought I would,
knowing how it spreads, how its treated, and why some people cant be treated for it.
Over all this has been a unique and unforgettable experience.
Kai Hastings
Over the course of this project I learned a lot more about TB. I did already know
a little bit about it but this really opened my eyes to the cruel reality that is taking place
in Africa right now. I mainly thought that the disease was not relevant in modern times
and that it was more of a problem in the 1900s before this project.
I thought that the fundraising was a very fun part of the project. I was glad that I
picked to fundraise instead of make an awareness poster. It allowed me to
communicate the problem face to face with the bystanders. I always feel that face to
face communication makes a lot more of an impact than just a sheet of paper that you
just walk by.

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