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Tuberculosis Is A Chronic Necrotizing Granulomatous Disease And Infection Caused By The Acid Fast Bacillus

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Introduction

Definition:
Tuberculosis is a chronic necrotizing granulomatous disease/ infection caused by the acid-fast bacillus (AFB) Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a group of rod-shaped organisms, as small as 2 to 4 micrometres. They are known as "acid-fast" bacteria because of their resistance to acid solutions in laboratory tests. Isolating and identifying tuberculosis bacilli was impossible until this attribute was understood and hence gave rise to alternative and new testing techniques. Tuberculosis most commonly attacks targets the lungs, and in cases of extra pulmonary sites, it targets the pleura, bones, lymph nodes and joints.
Tuberculosis is disseminated between persons through inhaling infectious droplet nuclei aerolized by the …show more content…

Then large amounts of caseous, a cheese-like material is continually generated. This material then liquefies, makes its way up the respiratory tract and mixes with saliva and becomes sputum, which in turn is coughed up profusely.
Following this process, the damage caused to the lining of the lungs results in the person to experience chest pain. The patient sweats at night, which leads to fever. It can become so severe that bed sheets need to be changed. Other symptoms may be troublesome as well. "I had back pain and numbness in my arm," says Sonia, a nurse with the disease. "My doctor seemed to think those were kind of unusual symptoms for TB."
Children suffering from tuberculosis may not appear to show any symptoms, hence physicicans may not notice during the regular checkups. Many children are diagnosed only when health-department workers are examining the contacts of an adult with the disease. "My kids don 't act sick," Randall points out. "But the doc says that don 't mean nothin '. They might be infected and then get sick real quick. TB can be pretty bad for little kids."
If not treated, the tuberculosis causes the lungs to be so damaged that simply breathing becomes a challenge. What follows is a continuous illness that consumes the body and due to haemorrhage (bleeding in the lungs) the patient dies. The death rate for untreated patients with

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