The TST is easily administered and if it works correctly, results can be obtained within 72 hours.

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, the white plague as used to be called once upon a time is still one of the deadliest bacterial killers affecting almost all parts, all corners of the globe. Though successful anti-tubercular antibiotic regimens and effective vaccine are available for decades and being used in the battle against Koch’s bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of this chronic multi organ granulomatous disease, our strand in the battle continuously seems to be in the losing side. Moreover the increasing prevalence of HIV-AIDS and diabetes mellitus is being proved to be providing predisposition to tuberculosis. As witnessed by the WHO, which has estimated that, in the year 2012, 8.6 million people have developed tuberculosis and 1.3 million have died of the disease including 320000 deaths of HIV-TB co-infected people (Global tuberculosis report 2013. World Health Organization; 2013). Long term antibiotic therapy and that too associated with several side effects and discomforts have diminished patient compliance with the anti-tubercular chemotherapy. This fact in turn has raised the new deadlier MDR-TB and XDR-TB strains. The whole scenario is a matter of panic and questioning the effectiveness of anti-tubercular antibiotics, immunologic efficacy of century old BCG vaccine and all other medical advents.

Canada has had many events where tuberculosis was having an outbreak in 1924 through 1948, but since then it has been decreasing. We have dealt with this problem back in 2012 where an outbreak of tuberculosis infected 8% of the individuals in the extremely small Northern Quebec community of Kangiqsualujjuaq. After the outbreak The Public Health Agency of Canada is running over to discover the origin of the outburst its spread. Officials are also bringing up more additional resources to the place, such as a mobile x-ray machine. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria that travel from person to person. A person who is infected with tuberculosis, but does not show any symptoms at all may have dormant tuberculosis and can still transmit

TB is a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally that boils down to one small, single infection. TB can be classified into 2 stages; Latent TB and Active TB. In Latent TB, the bacteria remain in the body in an inactive or dormant state. A person will not have any symptoms because their immune mechanism has stopped the bacteria from growing. Latent TB can remain in a dormant state for year (Zager et al, 2009). However this disease can easily change to Active TB. This change mainly occurs due to the rapid increase of Mycobacterium TB within an individual when a person becomes ill or their immune system is compromise. Ninety percent of the time, those who are infected with

After the questioning, I was given a shot in my arm and told to come back in three days. The tuberculosis test works that way, you get the shot and if it forms a bump, you’re infected. If it doesn’t, your body absorbs the fluid and you’re good to go. I came back to the office without a bump and I was given my first schedule.

Diagnosing tuberculosis infection in individuals who are not ill is primarily done with a tuberculin skin test that is read by a healthcare worker in 48 to 72 hours. Positive skin tests are an indication that the individual has been exposed to the tuberculosis germ. Additional testing such as chest x-rays or sputum cultures are needed to detect active disease. Latent TB infection is treated with anti-tubercular medications for a period of six to nine months. Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is a vaccine used in many countries outside of the United States. However, individuals who have had this vaccine can still develop TB. (cdc.gov)

Since 1921, this vaccination had been used in prevention of TB infections and in present day is the only licensed vaccine in use as a prevention tool for tuberculosis. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of BCG is not very high, as there is still close to 9 million people every year globally being infected by tuberculosis. The vaccination has about an 80% effectiveness in prevention of tuberculosis for 15 years, but as people get older, BCG seems to be decreasingly effective. One of the more crucial prevention techniques for avoiding tuberculosis is simply by having a healthy and non-compromised immune system. Adults who are considered to have a healthy immune system are automatically at an advantage; their immune systems will most likely be able to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis on its own. About 6/10 of all adults will have immune systems that are powerful enough to do so (“What is TB?”,

In Lesotho, sputum smear microscopy (Acid Fast Bacilli) and Gene Xpert are used to diagnose tuberculosis. The sputum smear method is widely used certainly because it is easily accessible but the Gene Xpert technology is gaining ground. The current trend is toward using Gene Xpert for diagnosis and sputum smear to follow up patients. We have added a paragraph to section 1 (section 1 paragraph 9) to clarify

Tuberculosis is one of the major causes of death from many infectious diseases (3). Out of 9 million people who are infected with mycobacteria, about 2 million deaths occur from tuberculosis every year (3). Unfortunately, the prevalence of tuberculosis is in a continuous increase due to increased number of Human immunodeificnecy virus (HIV) patients, bacterial resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs, and growing number of recreational drug users (3). The pathogen responsible for bacterial infection, potentially causing tuberculosis, is mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) (2). Persons with adequate immune system can control the bacterial infection so mycobacteria remain dormant for a long time (11). In a typical tuberculous granuloma, mature

Despite the accessibility of inexpensive and successful treatment, tuberculosis still accounts for millions of cases of active disease and deaths worldwide. The disease unreasonably has an effect on the neediest persons in both high-income and developing countries. However, recent improvements in diagnostics, drugs, vaccines and enhanced implementation of present interventions have increased the outlooks for enhanced clinical care and global tuberculosis restriction.

Coming to this point, now I realize why does the United States tremendously concern about the early detection of latent TB infection (LTBI). No wonder the United States is successful in recording a low rate of tuberculosis disease compared to other countries. Though there is still a huge controversy of BCG vaccination playing a role in false-positive PPD test, what I would like to recommend my friends and relatives is that they should do the TB blood test (IGRAs) to make sure that they aren’t infected with TB bacteria. I wish that the other developing countries like Nepal and India also have the effective TB control and prevention program like in the US. So that, not only does the United States continue to decline tuberculosis disease, but

There are two different types of tests that are used to determine if there is TB in the body. The first test is the TB skin test (TST) and the second one is TB blood test. A positive TB skin test or TB blood test only discloses if a person has been infected with TB bacteria. It does not tell whether the person has latent TB infection (LTBI) or has progressed to TB disease. Further testing, such as a chest x-ray and a sample of sputum (mucus), is necessary to see whether the person has TB disease. (https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/tbinfectiondisease.htm)

A false-positive check might happen if you have been vaccinated recently with the Bacilli Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. This TB vaccine is rarely used the in the U.S., however, is widely utilized in countries with high TB infection rates.

The technique for interpreting a TB skin test is to measure of any induration (localized swelling with hardening of tissue) perceived 48-72 hours after injection. (Blair, et al. 596) The presence of redness without induration is a negative finding. Moreover, the CDC specifies that an induration of 10mm or greater indicates exposure and possible infection, and a finding of 5mm or greater in an immunosuppressed patients or someone who has recently been in contact with an infected person should also considered

Tuberculosis (TB) is a CDC (Centers for Disease Control) notifiable disease which is caused by an infectious bacterium that was discovered by a man named Robert Koch in 1882. This infectious bacterium that causes Tuberculosis is called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), and is also known as Koch 's Bacillus. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (2015), Mtb is a small, slow-growing bacterium that can live only in people. It is not found in other animals, insects, soil, or other non-living things. Mtb is an aerobic bacterium, which means