The solution to the TB health problem among the African American population ought to start from the examination of the environmental and genetic factors affecting the disease. Scientific research has been imperative in trying to locate an effective solution for TB in TB-prone locations in the US (Van Tong et al., 2017). However, the dynamic nature of the genetic and environmental factors has been affecting the ability of scientists to find a definite a long-lasting solution for the cited health concern among the African Americans in the US. Therefore, this response aids in the discussion of genetic and environmental factors affecting TB.
The current studies have been focusing on the identification of factors that underly the susceptibility of TB on healthy people. The genome scan shows that TB susceptibility among Africans emanates from UBE3A on chromosome 15. Many families with a history of TB have the susceptibility gene identified on the 8q12-q13chromosome region (Harishankar et al., 2018). This information implies that the genetic composition of people exposes people to the risk of the disease. The increased mutation of the gene sequence responsibility for the disease defines the inability of the medical research to locate definite research that solves the problem among the cited problem.
The environment is another risk factor that affects TB. The exposure of an individual to poor health, social stress, exposure intensities, and malnutrition are some of the risk factors that expose an individual to TB (Laghari et al., 2019). The mechanism on how this exposure can be linked to tuberculosis is still scanty. Poverty is another social factor that exposes people to a greater risk of the disease. The increase of the disease in African countries and developing countries is a sign of the effect of poverty on the disease (Im & Kim, 2021). While genetic factors increase the risk of people suffering from tuberculosis, it has been established that the disease has a strong environmental component. Examination of both genetic and environmental factors is imperative in studying the prevalence of the diseases within a particular community.
Harishankar, M., Selvaraj, P., & Bethunaickan, R. (2018). Influence of genetic polymorphism towards pulmonary tuberculosis susceptibility. Frontiers in medicine, 5, 213. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2018.00213
Im, C., & Kim, Y. (2021). Spatial pattern of tuberculosis (TB) and related socio-environmental factors in South Korea, 2008-2016. Plos one, 16(8), e0255727. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255727
Laghari, M., Sulaiman, S. A. S., Khan, A. H., Talpur, B. A., Bhatti, Z., & Memon, N. (2019). Contact screening and risk factors for TB among the household contact of children with active TB: a way to find source case and new TB cases. BMC public health, 19(1), 1-10.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7597-0
Van Tong, H., Velavan, T. P., Thye, T., & Meyer, C. G. (2017). Human genetic factors in tuberculosis: an update. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 22(9), 1063-1071. https://doi.org/10.1111/tmi.12923
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