Tuberculosis As An Infectious Disease

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that affects one third of the world's population. The most infected areas are developing counties or third worlds countries such as Africa, India, Pakistan, and East Timor.

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 bacterial infection that can be spread in the lungs, lymph nodes, and bloodstream and to any part of an organ in the body. They are two types of tuberculosis which, is active and

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

Symptoms: Tuberculosis has many different symptoms that can take place during its active stages. In the prior paragraph I already stated that during its inactive stage the human is clear of any symptoms or effects that the disease may cause but the active stage is where most symptoms occur. Many symptoms like coughing up blood, fevers, loss of appetite, weight loss, chest pains, night sweat, chills and fatigue are associated with this disease. During Tuberculosis active stages you can develop anyone of those symptoms which will constantly take effect is not

This disease is passed from human to human through a simple cough. The agents from the M. tuberculosis complex directly attack the respiratory system, specifically the lungs in most cases. The microbe can also effect the brain, kidneys or spine (Biggest). From there the disease can take two forms, latent or active. In Figure 1, the chart shows the aggressiveness difference between latent and active. Patients that had HIV were found to have a higher chance of catching the microbe or becoming re-infected with the disease. Latent TB is basically TB with the symptoms turned off. When tested for the infections, the results are positive, but the patient does not feel sick or show any symptoms. Latent TB patients will not spread the infection and are not infectious (Biggest). Without treatment very few cases will morph into the active form within two years of infection. Active form is the most aggressive and contains the most concern. Symptoms include, weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, fatigue and chills. When TB has infected the lungs patients will witness chest pain, coughing for more than three weeks and may get as far as coughing up blood (Biggest). This form is very infectious and can be passed easily through the air as an infected person coughs the microbes into the surrounding air. For now, no vaccines or drugs have been found to completely cure Tuberculosis. Only the symptoms can be dealt with. Unfortunately, there is a new strands emerging that is multidrug- resistant and extensively drug-resistant where treatment is no longer an option

Pulmonary tuberculosis is an illness of the elderly, the poor, the alcoholic, and, today, the drug addict. TB, an indication of the frightening mortality of tuberculosis is contained in a report written about New York City in 1826. At that time New York had a population of 166,086. The total number of deaths in the two years preceding the report was 9,359, of which 1,579 were due to "consumption." This means TB accounted for 17% of deaths due to all causes.

Tuberculosis or TB is a bacterial infection that spreads through the bloodstream and is commonly found in the lungs (webMD.com). This infection is highly contagious can spread rapidly through air, but remain undetected because the bacteria can live in the body in an inactive form (webMD.com). This disease originated in Russian prisons, where inmates would be malnourished, alcoholics, and smokers (Willumsen & Shinefield, 2001). Since the bacteria lives in the body in the inactive form, people who are exposed and may have TB never develops any symptoms (webMD.com). The bacterium becomes active when the immune system weakens (mayoclinic.org). The active form of TB can result in coughs, sneezes, and spits (mayoclinic.org).

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.

Active TB symptoms manifest as chronic cough, chest pain, and fever, which can cause a lot of problems in people. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body.

TB has been taunting not only humans, but also animals for well over thousands of years. Within these years, a great deal of research and experiments have been conducted on this infectious disease. Many scientists have conducted this research and have made profound discoveries about Tuberculosis. This paper will explore not just Tuberculosis ' history but rather key information and important facts about this disease. Such information includes the discovery of antibiotics and medications produced through the years that are used to help cure the disease.

Finding it early and finding it late can be a great deal when looking at the various symptoms of tuberculosis. Depending on what type of TB you are; secondary or active tuberculosis multiple symptoms can vary depending on how it spreads through your body. Typically, people with tuberculosis can’t honestly notice if they have TB which leads to major costly operations or death. If they do, it usually starts with a blood-tinged cough or pain in the chest. The blood-tinged cough can also be chronic (constant) and the pain in the chest can be felt simply through just breathing. Throughout the whole body, the most common symptoms can be, chills, fatigue, fever, sweating or sweating of muscles, loss of appetite etc. These common symptoms most likely are depicted as natural occurrences of the body, which is why it is truly not known when you have TB. Although if it occurs too often you can notice it instantly as long as you pay attention to the way your body feels. Along with the outside of the body, the inside of the body can be affected; specifically organs. The most commonly affected organs are the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes are most commonly

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the world population is or has been infected with M. tuberculosis8. While this rate appears to be exceptionally high, only a few of the infected end up developing active tuberculosis in their lifetime. Most of the infected people have the inactive form (latent tuberculosis infection LTBI) of tuberculosis that poses no immediate problems.

Tuberculosis does show any different physical signs than regular tuberculosis. Both forms of tuberculosis show coughing for more than 3 weeks, coughing up blood or mucus, chest pain, fatigue/weakness, weight loss and loss of appetite, fever, and chills (1). Tuberculosis is easily caught by a new patient because the air that is contaminated by a carrier of the bacteria who has been in the room for a rather long time. Meaning if a person visits the carrier and goes into the carrier’s bedroom for an extended length of time, then that person could possibly contract tuberculosis. Not only is immediate contact a key factor in developing tuberculosis, health, where a person lives, and if that person developed tuberculosis in the past. These factors all accumulate and help in the spread of the disease from person to person.

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).