The Disease Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, a disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been around for thousands of years. In fact, one of the earliest cases of tuberculosis, known as TB, or often referred to as the White Plague, because of the pale skin of the Caucasians who wasted away from it, was found in a young man from Germany about 7,000 years ago. Scientists believe tuberculosis was probably an extremely common disease in Ancient Egypt, and throughout the centuries was spread through Europe, Asia, and Africa. European explorers including Columbus, were blamed for bringing TB to the New World, though evidence proves Native Americans suffered from the disease long before then.
TB did and still does attack
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It most frequently followed miliary tuberculosis, a form of TB in which small nodules of bacteria spread throughout the bloodstream. TB that affected the skin and face would cause a horrible condition called lupus. In the early stages, red marks and thickening of the nose would make the person appear wolflike. In the most severe form, the infected person's nose, eyes, cheeks, and ears were partly destroyed and would make the person look like a living skull.
Tuberculosis of the spine was also known as Pott's disease and gibbus. This made hunchbacks very common as well as causing crippling of the hip joints, shoulders, and arm and leg bones. Serious cases of diarrhea can cause TB in the intestines. In some patients, TB would destroy their voice box, so they could only talk in a low whisper, and even that was painful.
TB does not only affect humans. Cows are affected by a disease known as bovine tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium bovis, which was more common long ago. If the cow's udder got affected, so would the milk, passing the TB on to the humans who drank it. The process of pasteurization later eliminated this. Rats and mice have been found to be affected by a form called vole bacillus. Birds and poultry are affected by avian bacillus, another form of TB, which is also common in many AIDS patients.
Years and years of research by doctors and scientists only added up to a little progress against TB. At
Tuberculosis has long been a disease that the human culture has been dealing with which entails significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. With dealing with such a horrific disease over the years, discoveries and evolution on the appropriate ways to contain, diagnose, and challengingly treat the disease has changed. One of the most concerning complications of this worldwide public health issue is the ability for it to quickly spread in high populated areas while becoming ever more resistant to forms of treatment not available in all locations around the world. This is a serious public
Tuberculosis is most of the feared and widespread that has harassed humans. Tuberculosis is a disease that affects the lungs and other organs too. This is a very serious disease that can cause death and the worse part is that this disease travels to one person to another. In the book, Know about Tuberculosis, a boy who has tuberculosis sneezed on another boy named Kevin who did not automatically catch tuberculosis, but the terms have taken root. According to the book, Know about Tuberculosis, “In the United States, about ten to fifteen million people are infected with this disease, but only ten percent of people are infected; however doctors assume that the battle against tuberculosis is increasing around the world.” Tuberculosis is among the major concerns for the World Health Organization due to its contagious nature.
Tuberculosis is a deadly disease that is now affecting our world and the people living in it in a horrible way. Due to many factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and lack of health care, many third world and developing countries have been left very vulnerable to tuberculosis. It is affecting a large part of these countries and is leading them deeper into poverty and sickness. The effort to help these countries against tuberculosis has only been slightly effective against this widespread and destructive disease.
Tuberculosis has been part of human history for a long time but how long is a long time? Recent research using genetic data has allowed us to know that the tuberculosis progenitor has been on this planet for about 3 million years affecting even our earlier ancestors (Gutierrez et al, 2005). Additionally this research showed that the bacilli from tuberculosis are capable of mixing sections of their genome with other strains and giving the pathogen a composite assembly, which resulted from ancient horizontal exchanges before its clonal expansion. This quality provided tuberculosis a big advantage that even now a days allows the organism to evade, adapt and create resistance to treatments that were once successful. In order to fix current and
Once believed to be easily treated and prevented, Tuberculosis (TB) has recently been making a steady comeback. Previous to modern medicine, TB claimed millions of victims, spreading from person to person like wildfire. Around the 17th-18th centuries, the “White Plague” took the lives of 1 in 5 adults (20%) in Europe and North America (Iseman, 1994). However, as technological advances progressed, this seemingly ferocious viral disease became a primal, insignificant thing of the past. But, in the nature of all bacteria, TB has, in the recent years, mutated to become progressively drug resistant. Why is Tuberculosis coming back with a vengeance? Well, the answer’s quite simple. TB has done an amazing job of standing in the corner and
Tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria “Mycobacterium Tuberculosis” and is mainly causes infection of the lungs (WHO, 2016). Its mode of transmission is airborne, so it can be passed on by inhalation of airborne droplets which carrying the bacteria, when an infected patient coughs, sneezes, or spits the TB germs into the air (WHO, 1026). Among the symptoms of active TB are: cough with sputum and blood, chest pains, weakness, fever and night sweats (WHO, 2016). Most at risk to get the TB infection are people with weakened immune system such as people who are suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, severe kidney disease, silicosis and especially HIV infection (CDC, 2016). Children and Tobacco users are also at greater risk to fall ill with TB.
According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis (TB) is the number two killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent (WHO, 2017). In 2015, 10.4 million new cases have been identified and 1.8 million people have died from this disease (WHO, 2017). TB is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium TB, and the majority of TB deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. This disease is curable and preventable, but the lack of access to proper healthcare and medication administration makes it a concern for the most of the world’s population. TB is an airborne disease that can transmit when an infected person coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs, or talks. The majority of TB cases can be cured when the right medications are available and
Among many misconceptions, tuberculosis is not a disease of the past. Tuberculosis remains a public health issue. It is estimated that one-third of the total world population is infected by tuberculosis (TB). The American lung association (2013) states, in 2011 alone there were nearly 9,000,000 new diagnosed cases of tuberculosis around the world and an estimated 1.4 million deaths because of this disease. In the United States, TB is not as common (but still a problem). In 2011, only 10,500 people reported having TB (Trends in Tuberculosis Morbidity and
Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), also known as TB, is a disease spread by respiratory inhalation of droplets that contain the bacteria. Tuberculosis is an ancient disease that has been traced back at least 9000 years. In 1882, Dr. Robert Koch was the first physician to describe Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the germ responsible for tuberculosis. However, treatment that was evidenced based was not put into practice until the 20th century. It is estimated that 2 billion people around the world are infected with the TB bacteria. Approximately 5 to 10 percent of these infected people will actual develop active TB and experience the life-threatening symptoms of the disease. Tuberculosis
Hi my name is Tyree Coleman and today I will inform you about a world known disease called Tuberculosis but most commonly known as TB. Tuberculosis is a infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs. Like many other diseases Tuberculosis is airborne is very easy to contract. This disease was first discovered in March 24, 1882 by a German physician and scientist named Robert Koch. Koch simply found traces of mycobacterium tuberculosis in cows, which is the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis. Many people are at risk of getting TB but may not even know it because of how quickly the disease can spread and not knowing enough information about it or not getting tested. The most common way you can get Tuberculosis is by being in constant
Tuberculosis is a 6000 years old disease, but the first time it infected human was in Africa 5000 years ago. Due to its danger it is called the white plague. It was transmitted to human by animals, so hunters were that first people who caught the disease. After that, the disease had spread to Europe and America through trade routes. This disease appeared in Ancient India, Ancient China, Classical antiquity, Pre-Columbian America, Europe: middle ages and renaissance, until Twentieth century. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis was first discovered by Robert Koch in 24 march 1882, and he received the Nobel Prize for his discovery. Throughout the ages, tuberculosis has infected tens of millions of people, and killed
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that affects a persons lungs and has the ability to be life threatening. The bacteria that causes TB is known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/). The TB bacteria is spread from person to person when an infected person coughs or sneezes and minute droplets enter the air. Approximately one third of people throughout the world have latent TB
Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic bacterial infection that affects millions of people globally. It is a contagious disease that is spread through the air, and it usually affects the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person through droplets from the respiratory tract of those who are already infected with the disease. Some who are infected with the bacteria that causes TB often exhibit no symptoms, because their immune systems stop the bacteria from growing and multiplying. Those with compromised immune systems are more susceptible to developing the full blown disease which can cause symptoms that include coughing, spitting blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, and fever. Tuberculosis can be treated with a six to nine month course of a combination of antibiotics. If left untreated, TB will spread and can be fatal.
The disease can be transmitted mainly through the air, but there are other means of being infected with TB. Alcohol and drug abuse are some of the popular means in which infection can occur and since the drugs weaken the immune system, the spread of the ailment can be rather fast. Terminal diseases like HIV and cancer reduce the immune system and this promotes propagation of the disease into an individual’s body system.
India, the second most populous country with over 1.31 billion people, has the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in the world, accounting for 20% of the global incidence of TB, and an even higher share of global incidence of multi–drug resistant (MDR) TB. With an estimated 2 million new cases of TB and 5, 00,000 TB-related deaths in India annually, those who got diagnosed with different forms of DR-TB were 35,385 cases but only 20,753 people started on multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) treatment in 2013. The National Tuberculosis Program was launched in 1962, but suffered heavily continuing TB led mortality. Acknowledging this reality, a Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) was launched by the Government of India in 1997, however even today it does not comply with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.