Why men are more susceptible to TB infection, by expert

Stakeholders urge more awareness on disease

American human rights lawyer and legal researcher, Prof. Brian Citro, has said that men are more vulnerable to Tuberculosis (TB) infection than women.

Citro, who revealed this while delivering a paper, titled, “Demanding a Gender-Transformative TB Response,” at a workshop organised by Lawyers Alert and Debriche Health Development Centre (DHDC), sponsored by Stop TB Partnership, Geneva, which ended yesterday in Lagos, said women have stronger immune system that protects them against TB.

According to him, men’s body system and social behaviours keep their immune systems down, making them more vulnerable to the disease.

He cited smoking, alcohol, occupations (like mining) and lax attitude to treatment as factors that weaken men’s immune system.

Citro referred to global TB incidence in 2020, which put men of productive age at 56 per cent, women at 33 per cent and children below 15 years at 11 per cent.

On TB deaths of HIV-negative people, the data put men at 53 per cent, women at 32 per cent and under-15 children at 16 per cent.

“Men have unique physiological/biological susceptibilities to TB due to a comparably weaker immune response to TB bacteria, genetic characteristics associated with X chromosomes, respiratory tract anatomy, male sex hormones and metabolism of nutrients like iron,” he said.

“They are often more susceptible to behavioural factors associated with occupational exposure, labour migration, employment insecurity, incarceration, social contacts and patterns of socialisation, smoking, alcohol and drug use, delays in seeking healthcare and restrictive notions of masculinity,” he said.

The workshop noted that rights of many people, especially women, are violated because they are affected by TB, adding that no law in Nigeria explicitly address human rights as they affect TB.

Also noting that TB awareness is poor in Nigeria, even among the elite, the participants called for more sensitisation on the disease.

Citro and some other resource persons, including President of Lawyers Alert, Rommy Mom and Executive Director, DHDC, Deborah Ogwuche-Ike, stated that the workshop is just the beginning of engagements on TB awareness.

They called on the People Affected by TB (PATB), media, lawyers, non-governmental organisations and other participants to spread the message on TB education so that the world could give the disease the attention the coronavirus (COVID-19) enjoyed.