Tuberculosis: A Chronic Infectious Disease

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 has been a persistent threat to the human race as far back as Hippocrates (c.460-c.370 BC). Globally, tuberculosis has infected millions during waves, often killing scores of people at a time, and then receding giving it an almost supernatural quality (Daniel, 2006). In recent history tuberculosis has been recorded in all corners of the world, and currently infects one third of the global population. In 2012, TB was responsible for killing 1.3 million people, making it the second largest fatal disease next to AIDS. The purpose of this paper is to describe tuberculosis, explain contributing factors, describe the disease in relation to the epidemiologic triangle, and finally

Now, scientists are warning signs of risks of tuberculosis and share information about bacterias and viruses. Today, when a new germ is known, they have a better chance of learning how to cure and fight it. Volunteers take the time to help in laborites in the United States, South America, Central America, and Asia. The World Health Organization reports that third of the world’s population is infected and eight million people get sick from tuberculosis that is identified to be helped by medicine from spreading the disease to

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

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

In an era where we consider the improvement of technology as the key to overcoming most a finding of diseases. Tuberculosis disease has been in existence for years; the ancient plague of tuberculosis continues to spread throughout population and countries. Beyond any other infectious disease. “In 2013, 9 million people around the world became sick with TB disease. There were around 1.5 million TB-related deaths worldwide (Kim, Shakow, Castro, Vande, & Farmer, 2015).” With all the technology improvement and drugs we still struggle to manage this deadly disease. Between 18th and19th century tuberculosis spread and reaches its maximal growth in urban and industrial environment of the united states and Europe. During that time in the Western

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.

Tuberculosis is not only an infectious disease; this disease also raises questions in regards to social awareness on the individual level on how it can affect each and every community around the world so differently. TB, this infectious disease, is not only a medical condition that needs to be treated yet it brings psychological approaches. Psychological approaches that include finding an improved management method so that the community affected is able to accept the issues and react to them. Finding the social factors by developing creative approaches within the complex society by utilizing the good intentions and interactions within the society. By properly approaching the disease to

The respiratory tract is the most common site for infection by pathogens, because it comes in contact with the physical environment and is exposed to the air. We will review the causative agent, symptoms, preferred treatment, laboratory identification tests and priority nursing interventions for several respiratory tract infections and to prevent these microbes from entering the respiratory tract.

Tuberculosis(TB) is a highly contagious disease that primarily affects the lungs, although it can also be found in other body parts. The disorder is caused by a bacteria called myocardial tuberculosis, and is mostly spread through the air when an infected person coughs. Many years ago, tuberculosis accounted for nearly 30% of deaths in the US. In the 1940’s and 50’s, however, its fatality rate dropped significantly due to antibiotics and vaccinations. Since the outbreak of AIDS, tuberculosis has increasingly been an issue again since people with the disease cannot fight off TB (Bontrager & Lampignano 2005, Basic TB Facts 2012).

Now that you have been diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) disease, let us talk about some of the medications, known as anti-tuberculosis medications, the doctor is likely to prescribe. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are ten different drugs that can be used to treat TB, with the “first-line anti-TB” medications being: isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), etherambutol (EMB), and pyrazinamide (PZA) (CDC, 2016). These are taken in pill form, by mouth. The two phases of treatment are the intensive phase, where you will take INH, RIF, PZA, and EMB; and the continuation phase, where you will be taking INH and RIF. There are a few different options for dosing. The CDC states that for the intensive phase you

Even though the idea of tuberculosis being hereditarily was present, tuberculosis was still agreed to be an infectious disease at this time. Tuberculosis, as many other bacterial infections, needs a host. The bacterium is not found outside of the animal’s body. The main way that tuberculosis, and many other bacteria-caused diseases spread is through sputum. It is estimated that “a fairly well advanced consumptive spits out from one and a half to four and a third billion bacilli in twenty-four hours” (Kelbs 32). Basically, if the person is infected with tuberculosis, and does not take proper precautions, that person is endangering everyone they come in contact with. It is estimated that “a consumptive infects only a small area about him – 30 to 50 cubic meters” (Kelbs 32). When a person is coughing and, sneezing, or even talking, that person is ejecting dried up and pulverized sputum, which can be easily carried like dust through the currents of air to be inhaled or swallowed. While the most obvious way of spread is through expelling the bacterium into the air, the culture of the early 20th century also fueled the spread. Handkerchiefs were very popular at the time. Through this popular fashion of the time, “sputum is also disseminated through the habit of spitting into handkerchiefs, which soil the pocket into which they are placed” (Kelbs 32). After the handkerchief is placed back into is place, the sputum is then dried and pulverized, ready to be spread. Any hand that has

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When active, the bacteria usually attack the lung tissue. It can also spread to other organs in other areas of the body, such as the brain, the spine, and the kidneys. If not treated, TB can cause severe respiratory distress and may lead to death.

Tuberculosis is among the fatal diseases that are spread through the air. It’s contagious, meaning that it spreads from one infected individual to another, and at times it spreads very fast. In addition to being contagious, the disease is an opportunist infection as it takes advantage of those with weak defense mechanism, and especially the ones with terminal diseases like HIV and AIDS. Tuberculosis is therefore among the major concerns for the World Health Organization due to its contagious nature (World Health Organization 1).