Tuberculosis And The Hiv / Aid Epidemic

Bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes tuberculosis a complex granulomatous disease which is a global health concern. It is a very slow growing bacteria, thus is extremely time consuming to culture in laboratory. It can survive the attack of the immune arsenal of our body; can successfully hide inside the macrophage. This makes long periods of uninterrupted antibiotic treatment necessary for the patients with tuberculosis and contributes to drug resistance very quickly [WHO 2014]. All this poses an extreme challenge to the scientists and the medical community to develop effective drug, monitor and treat this disease across globe. Before the discovery of anti-tubercular drugs, this disease was one of the most dreaded diseases. In absence of any drugs the only form of treatment recommended was healthy diet, rest and fresh air. Patients were sent to Tuberculosis sanatorium hoping that they might survive. The origin of this pathogen is traced back to Africa around 70,000 years ago and they successfully coevolved with humans as they migrated out of Africa and settled across the globe. Nearly 10,000 years ago there was a sudden change in human demography and the human population density increased suddenly, this is termed as Neolithic Demographic Transition. Genomic data of Mycobacterium across

Often times, people in third world countries face health problems that are not experienced in first and second world countries. Diseases that do not exist in the countries such as the US anymore are still some of the leading problems in poor nations. Professor Susan Craddock from the department of Gender, Woman and Sexuality studies gave a presentation that focused on Tuberculosis, which is falls into a category of diseases called “neglected diseases”. They are called neglected because the development of vaccines and drugs to cure the diseases has decreased to about nothing. The market for these drugs is not lucrative enough for pharmaceutical companies in higher income countries to invest in research. Since the low income countries do not have the resources to carry out research for these drugs the number of neglected disease-related deaths has increased. I found the presentation interesting and enlightening especially because I am interested in the pharmaceutical field. In response to the neglected diseases, different organizations have come together to research and develop vaccines and drugs that can treat these diseases.

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.

Mycobacterium Avium Complex (MAC) is an atypical Mycobacterium associated with human disease that affects people who have an underlying lung disease, such as tuberculosis and who are immune compromised, such as AIDS, hairy cell leukemia or immunosuppressive chemotherapy. Mac has been associated with infection of the bone (osteomyelitis), inflammation of the sheath that covers the tendons (tenosynovitis), inflammation of the synovial membrane (synovitis), and disseminated disease involving the lymph nodes, the central nervous system, the liver, spleen and bone marrow. Mycobacterium Avium Complex is the most common cause of infection by nontuberculous mycobacteria or NTM in patients with AIDS. MAC rarely occurs

The author is stating in this article that society is becoming more concerned towards worldwide epidemics. The writer brings to our attention and talks over the effects of tuberculosis and how they are using giant pouched rats as a secondary source in detecting TB quicker and more reliable than x-rays. The human nature of society currently is turning out to be more compassionate and kindly towards others; at this moment civilization thrives on creating a broader impact to stop diseases that cause chaos in the world today.

One of the main reasons why this topic was selected is that the infections caused by the virus are considerably common with some people having outbreaks several times a year. The risks of infection depend on

It also has an affinity for nerve cells, which is why leprosy is characterized by loss of feeling on the skin surface. M. leprae is the only mycobacterium known to infect nervous

rarely, can spread through the blood stream and infect the joints, heart valves, or the brain. The

Mycoplasma pneumoniae is unique and mysterious because of its small genome and physical size. The bacterium contains only 500-2300 Kba in its genome that produces about 700 different proteins. (Emerging infectious

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogen, which its physiology is directly linked to features of tuberculosis that it causes. The crucial feature for a mycobacteria’s survival is its unique cell wall structure. The insoluble cell wall core of MTB is formed by a large variety of lipid-containing molecules, such as mycolic acid, that are covalently attached (6). This hydrophobic cell wall provides a physical protection from the host immune response and serves as a barrier against many toxic insults (2). Further, the complex MTB cell wall is impermeable to both hydrophobic and hydrophilic molecules, resulting in inherent resistance of MTB to most common antibiotics (8). Lipoarabinomannan is an antigen on the outside of the organism. This antigen is another important component of the cell wall because it inhibit the fusion of Mycobacterium-containing phagosomes with lysosomal compartments (4). Lipoarabinomannan hinders the fusion of phagosome with lysosome by impairing Ca2+/calmodulin pathway and inactivates macrophages (8). Therefore, this cell-surface component of MTB is able to facilitate the survival of mycrobacteria within macrophages (8). Also, MTB is able to survive the harsh environment of the host tissues by utilizing any available

In many cases, Mycobacterium tuberculosis usually develops because of inconsistent consumptions of drugs. Most of the time, most people don’t even know they are infected until symptoms occur because this pathogen is easily transmitted through air exchange (Medline Library, 2005). Although this pathogen usually remains inactive even when it is in the immune system, it becomes

Tuberculosis was one of the first infectious diseases to be documented in human history and continues to afflict and co-evolve with humanity today. This disease is prevalent in mankind as well as in other animals through of the genus of bacteria called Mycobacterium. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as “Bacillus of Koch,” is the species of tuberculosis most common in humans. It is estimated this causative bacterium evolved 50,000 years ago and was discovered in 1883 by Robert Koch (see figure 1). Koch discovered TB by comparing tuberculosis-infected tissue dissections from guinea pigs, brains, lungs of people who had died from blood-borne tuberculosis, and the lungs of chronically infected

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).

Consequently, the sudden halt in the translational process results in shortened amino acid chains and therefore malformed proteins. The malformed proteins result in the antibiotic resistance, hence the treatment of M. tuberculosis with macrolide antibiotics can cripple the natural processes of the bacteria and result in unwanted complications (-- removed HTML --) >[KC7] . The same can be said for non-tuberculosis mycobacterium. For instance, the Mycobacterium abscessus strains are often treated with macrolides and become resistant to the antibiotic treatment (-- removed HTML --) >. M. abscessus is a crucial cause of pulmonary infections brought on by other underlying causes such as bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis among many other chronic lung diseases (-- removed HTML --) >. In another study performed by scientists, it was noted that the same treatment of macrolides are effective in treating other strain of mycobacterium such as Mycobacterium abscessus subsp massiliense, and Mycobacterium abscessus subsp bolletii, with M. abscessus being the most common (-- removed HTML --) >. In addition, the study pointed out that contrary to previous studies, there is not enough evidence to support that chronic lung diseases are brought out from macrolide-resistant M. abscessus (-- removed HTML --) >. The strain’s mechanism of resistance is similar to that as of M.

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.