Tuberculosis : An Antique, Deadly Infectious Disease Caused By The Bacterium Baccilus Mycobacterium Tuberculosis1

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 (TB), a multisystem disease with myriad presentations and manifestations, is the most common cause of infectious disease–related mortality worldwide. Although TB rates are decreasing in the United States, the disease is becoming more common in many parts of the world. In addition, the prevalence of drug-resistant TB is increasing worldwide. TB is caused by M tuberculosis, a slow-growing obligate aerobe and a facultative intracellular parasite. The organism grows in parallel groups called cords (as seen in the image below). It retains many

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

Tuberculosis is a disease of an infectious nature caused by a bacterium known as mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease spreads through the air. People with the disease can spread it to susceptible people through coughing, sneezing, talking or spitting. It mainly affects the lungs and other parts such as the lymph nodes and kidneys can also be affected. The symptoms for TB are fatigue, coughing, night sweats, weight loss and fever. One third of the population of the world is affected with mycobacterium tuberculosis. The rate of infection is estimated to be one person per second. About 14 million people in the world are infected with active tuberculosis. Drug resistant TB has been recorded to be a serious public health hazard in many countries. Resistant strains have developed making it difficult to treat the disease. TB has caused millions of death mainly in people living with HIV/AIDS ADDIN EN.CITE Ginsberg19981447(Ginsberg, 1998)1447144717Ginsberg, Ann M.The Tuberculosis Epidemic: Scientific Challenges and OpportunitiesPublic Health Reports (1974-)Public Health Reports (1974-)128-13611321998Association of Schools of Public Health00333549http://www.jstor.org/stable/4598234( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_3" o "Ginsberg, 1998 #1447" Ginsberg, 1998). The World Health Organization came up with the DOTS (Directly Observed, Therapy, Short course) strategy. The approach involves diagnosing cases and treating patients with drugs for about 6-8

Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB, has existed for centuries. The oldest recorded account of TB can be found in the literature by Hippocrates from around 460 BC (Tranotti, n.d.). However, at this point the infection was referred to as phthisis. Now at this time, this disease seemed to spell out the inevitable death for its prey. Hippocrates went so far as to advise his colleagues in the medical field to stay away from patients of the viral disease in order for the physicians not to lose their reputations due to the inevitability of their deaths. Later, in 1679, Dr. Franciscus Sylvius identified the anatomy and pathology of the disease. He was the first to identify actual tubercles, abscesses, and cavities in the lungs of patients as a result of the virus which led to its naming of Tuberculosis (A History of Tuberculosis Treatment, n.d.). About forty years later, English physician Benjamin Martin

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.

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 (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

TB is one of the world’s oldest diseases. Early in the 17 century, Dr. Benjamin Martin, an English doctor linked transmission of the germ from a sick individual to others around him through close contact. It was referred to as “Captain Among these Men of Death” during the 18th and 19th centuries due to the number of people in North America and Europe infected and killed by this bacteria (Daniel, 2006). Based on historical evidence, TB can be traced back as far as 5,000 years in Egypt. The germ was continuously spread as those infected migrated to different regions. TB was considered to be a disease that was inherited in Northern Europe and

A nightmare of no modern medication for tuberculosis had dawned on varieties of people since the deadly disease can spread quickly around thousands of people. The deaths to this infectious bacteria have caused people to question the real known facts of tuberculosis. The bacteria called mycobacterium has scared thousands of people to the point where they can’t even think what happens to people with this disease beyond their country borders. Tuberculosis is a pervasive disease caused by just one cough or sneeze, sending you straight to the hospital and fighting for you’re life to be treated.

Tuberculosis or TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacteria are aerobic bacteria, which do not form spores and are non-motile. They are curved, intracellular rods, and have cell walls made of glycolipids and phospholipidglycans that protect them from lysosomal attacks. TB is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Approximately one out of three people worldwide are infected; in 2014, 9.6 million people were diagnosed with TB and there were 1.5 million deaths (CDC, 2014). This disease is highly contagious, and although the number of cases reported has decreased, the decrease was smaller than in previous years. New strains of drug resistant TB pose a threat to the global population as a whole; less than half of those diagnosed with drug-resistant TB are successfully cured.

Tuberculosis is primarily found in areas of poverty and is the number one killer of people who have contracted HIV. Evidence of the presence of Tuberculosis has been traced back to the Ancient Egyptian era as evidence of tubercular decay has been found in the spines of mummies. Tuberculosis was also very prevalent and a wide-spread killer in both ancient Greece and Imperial Rome. As time has progressed, various scientific discoveries have occurred which have been able to loosen the grip of tuberculosis on the world and significantly reduce its death rate. These include; the discovery of the mycobacterium tuberculosis, discovery of the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine and development of both curative and preventative drugs.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which has possibly caused more fatalities than any other microbial pathogen, has a long-standing worldwide history. Research has shown that an early precursor of the bacteria may have been present in East Africa as long as three million years ago. The current form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is thought to be a descendant from a bacterium that existed about 20,000 to 15,000 years ago, but the variety of tuberculosis forms present today probably appeared between 250 and 1,000 years ago. Historical evidence for the presence of tuberculosis in ancient times can be obtained through certain skeletal abnormalities that are associated with tuberculosis. For example, Egyptian mummies dating over 5,000 years old have been found to contain the Pott’s deformity (Daniel, 2006). This deformity entails a compressed and deformed spinal cord that results from progressed

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).