Today this is the space to discuss Covid-19. Tomorrow, we will choose another topic for our group brainstorming bringing you data that will help you draw your own conclusions. We are against being treated like a herd.
HIV, TB and COVID?
Let us give you some data, so that you stop being fed numbers by the media like a goose. Our goal is to make you think. Please THINK.
HIV
In the early 1980s, we started coming across cases of unexplained infectious syndromes that would end-up killing those patients. It was the birth of the HIV era and AIDS. It has been and remains a pandemic since Day-1. The primary way of transmission is unprotected sex, contaminated blood transfusions, hypodermic needles, and from mother to child during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding.
In 2018, 37.9 million people in the world were living with HIV, and it resulted in 770,000 deaths. Close to half of these cases are in East and South Africa. The disease caused an estimated 32 million deaths worldwide since the beginning. In dental practice, we treat every patient as if it were an HIV+ carrier. Why? Because it is the way to protect other patients from cross-contamination as well as the staff.
When HIV appeared, TB-Tuberculosis was slowly disappearing in industrialized countries. But patients that started developing AIDS because they were immune compromised were more prone to develop TB, which is an opportunistic infection. It gave TB a new momentum, and it came back, more resistant to antibiotics than ever, despite the existence of the BCG vaccine.
Let us do together the parallel between TB and Covid-19.
TUBERCULOSIS
When HIV appeared, TB-Tuberculosis was slowly disappearing in industrialized countries. But patients that started developing AIDS because they were immune-compromised were more prone to develop TB, which is an opportunistic infection. It gave TB a new momentum, and it came back, more resistant to antibiotics than ever, despite the existence of the BCG vaccine. Why am I digressing to TB here? Let me do a parallel between TB and Covid-19.
More than two billion people -one-third of the world’s population- carry a latent form of TB without symptoms. 10% of these can pass it on to others. Two billion people will test positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for TB. They can develop the disease at any point in time if their immune system weakens and transmit it.
There are 8.4 million new cases a year – 4,100 people die of TB every day, winter, summer, or fall.
People with HIV are 30 times more likely to develop TB, infants and young children are more susceptible to contracting more severe forms of TB, such as meningitis.
People with diabetes are 3 times more likely to develop TB.
People in dusty environments and the mining industry are at increased risk of developing TB. Their lungs present the same patterns doctors are using to label patients in hospitals as “Covid diseased”.
- On this topic note that mines are an essential part of the northern Italy landscape.
- Note that China and Italy are the world’s largest producers of ceramic by far, and respiratory health problems among ceramic workers are well-documented. They will die first if they have pulmonary complications even with a simple flu.
- Smokers are at higher risk of developing TB as well as any other respiratory disease. 30% of the cigarettes in the world are consumed in China for 18% of the world population.
- The gender ratio for smokers is 40% men to 9% women.
- TB is transmitted by the saliva micro-droplets that are projected when coughing, sneezing, and speaking.
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Have you ever heard of Social distancing with TB? Have you ever seen anywhere the obligation to wear masks to prevent TB contagion?
NUMBERS SHOULD MAKE US THINK
25 out of 100 patients in the world -one out of four-are carriers of the TB bacteria (=CLOSE TO 2 BILLION) . Ten percent of those are contagious even without symptoms (200 million). That is 2.5% of the world population. It means that 2-3 out of 100 patients in a dental office hereto, can transmit the TB bacteria to others. A lot more than Covid-19 or any other known virus/bacteria.
If we look at the testing that has been conducted hitherto on Covid-19 by Iceland, which is the only one that makes sense to me, they have tested 13% of their population randomly, -fifty thousand people in total not in hospitals! Hospital testing is already biased. Fewer than 1% of the tests came back positive for the virus. 50% of those were asymptomatic, confirming they can spread the virus too, though less effectively than ill patients. So out of 100 patients, we can assume that less than one tests positive, and let us say that one out of two hundred can transmit the disease previously to being sick.
1,5 million people died of TB in the world in 2018. Was that all over the news? 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis worldwide in that same year [1.1. million children!] – So far 346,000 people supposedly died of Covid.
Leading countries with TB in 2018 : India leading the count, followed by, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa. 95% of deaths are in developing countries.
HIV/AIDS infected people 41,815,576 – HIV/AIDS deaths this year so far 670,986.
1,995,372 deaths caused by smoking this year adding 10 a minute; 998,000 by alcohol.
843,253,109 Undernourished people in the world by May 25th 2020 adding one more every 5 seconds, that’s 12 every minute since then.
Net population growth this year (= births-death) 32,445,140 so far.
BUT GUESS WHAT? Tuberculosis is curable and preventable – Deaths from alcohol, cigarettes and undernourishment are preventable
If they want us to carry a Covid certificate or are so actively looking for a vaccine, why are cigarettes still being sold? What about alcohol?
Covid-19 has killed an average of 1,927 cases a day since November 2019, TB 4,100 people a day. When did the value of human lives vary based on their location or their socio-economic origin?
COVID-19 and the Dental office
In the dental office nothing will really change, except that the Team will be dressed as surgeons no matter the procedure. What I would do, even if it isn’t mandatory, which we have always done during sterile procedures, is have the patient wear a gown to avoid contamination of the equipment via clothes. Aside from that, nothing new.
In all Dental offices there will be PPE [ personal protective equipment] that will be single use, and enough .
As we always say at Mental2Dental and emphasize in our flag book Show Me Your Teeth look for signs of cleanliness throughout the clinic. There cannot be two standards. If the place doesn’t look clean to you, don’t expect it to be clean for you.
Personally, at Mental2Dental, we are happy this will force offices to put single-use plastic on chairs and equipment.
It is not about Covid-19 as much as all the germs that run wild in a dental office. So, this is a good thing.
We have bacteria in the dental clinic that are scary, not to speak about the ones you carry in your clothes.
