Tuberculosis Is Among the Major Infectious Killer Diseases Essay

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 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

TB, or Tuberculosis, is a chronic or acute contagious disease caused by a bacterial infection. TB is the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease, accounting for over a quarter of avoidable deaths among adults. It can affect several organs of the human body, including the brain, the kidneys and the bones, but it predominately manifests itself in the lungs where it is called "Pulmonary Tuberculosis".

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 or TB as it is commonly known, is an infection caused by bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease caused by bacteria affecting the lungs, and it spreads when infection airborne droplets, produced when a person with tuberculosis of the lung or throat coughs or sneezes, are inhaled [1]. It is a disease that has essentially been eradicated in the Western world, however it continues to impact millions in the developing world despite it being both preventable and curable.

Tuberculosis is a disease derived from a bacterium called Mycobacterium. Microorganism such as mycobacteria are participates in nature’s recycling program. The wall of the membrane of the bacterium contains abnormally high levels of lipids but since M.tuberculosis lacks an outer membrane so it’s classified as both gram positives and gram negative. There are two types of tuberculosis infections pulmonary and extra-pulmonary. Pulmonary tuberculosis affects the lungs. Extra-pulmonary affects different parts of the body except the lungs. Since tuberculosis is an airborne so many can get it from shaking hands or touching public objects.

Infectious diseases remain among the leading diseases in the world. Illness and death from infectious diseases are particularly tragic because they might be preventable and treatable. Tuberculosis is one of the most serious infectious diseases. People almost forgot about this disease and think that does not exist around us. Tuberculosis is a very prevalent, contagious and deadly disease worldwide. According to World Health Organization (WHO) (2014), “Today, tuberculosis remains one of the leading infectious disease killers around the world. Emerging drug-resistant strains are presenting a new challenge in the ever-changing battle to control and prevent

“Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious and an often severe airborne disease caused by bacterial infection. TB is transmitted from an infected person to a susceptible person in airborne particles, called droplet nuclei, through the air usually through sneezing, coughing, spitting and singing. This bacterium usually attacks the lungs, but it also may affect any part of the body such as the kidney, spine and brain. Not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. As a result there are two TB- related conditions that exist; latent TB infection and TB disease. The latent TB does not cause any symptoms because the bacterium situated in the lungs is inactive. People can have latent TB for weeks or even years before developing active TB. If this disease is not treated properly, it can be fatal. The symptoms of TB disease depend on where in the body the TB bacteria are growing. Pulmonary TB is the most common and the symptoms are a bad cough that lasts for 3 weeks or longer, chest pain, blood discharge while coughing, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever and sweating at night” (CDC, 2016).

The majority of new TB cases tend to occur in the South-East Asian and Western Pacific regions (56%), and a further one quarter cases are found in the African regions (25%) (see Figure 2), for which the highest rates of cases and deaths relative to population were documented in 20131 (see Table 2). It is in these countries specifically that issues of resistance and poor treatment outcomes are of most concern, particularly their effect on vulnerable populations like IDPs and refugees.

TB is diagnosed with a TB skin test or a blood test. Tuberculin skin text or the Mantoux test is performed by injecting a small amount of fluid called tuberculin into the forearms on the top layer of the skin. It should be read 48 to 72 hours after. A positive TB skin test means that the person came in contact with an infected person but does not mean the person does necessarily have TB disease. The blood test examines the reaction seen in the person’s blood to the bacteria that cause TB. A positive blood test means that the person has been infected but not necessarily has TB disease. If TB is suspected, further testing is needed. A health care provider will review the persons medical history, perform a medical examination, obtain a chest x-ray, a sputum test, and run more tests to ensure proper diagnosis of any case of TB

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of mortality in all over the world. The infection caused by M. tuberculosis is commonly known as tuberculosis or TB. According to a CDC report, in 2012, approximately nine million patients were infected globally with TB and the fatality was around 1.3 million1. It is estimated that nearly one third of the global population is infected with TB.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly contagious disease that could cause death if it is not treated. TB is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and it affects the lungs and other human organs (Frith, 2014). Tuberculosis is an airborne disease that could be transmitted by sneezing, coughing, and speaking. According to world health organization (WHO), 9.6 million people were affected by Tuberculosis and 1.5 million died from the disease in 2014 worldwide. 9,421 cases of Tuberculosis were reported in United States in 2014 which has declined comparing to 26,673 cases reported in 1992. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there are seven high-risk factor countries that are affected by Tuberculosis. Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, India, china, Haiti, and Guatemala are the countries which still have high risk of Tuberculosis infection. Throughout history Tuberculosis was associated with different names. Some of those names are: phthisis and consumption in 18th century, white death and the great white plague in 19th century and other names to describe the horror caused by the disease. Previously people have used human breast milk, eating wolf livers, drinking elephant urine, and etc.as a treatment for TB (Frith,2014). In 21st century Tuberculosis is treated by medications like: isoniazid (INH), Rifampin (RIF), Rifapentine (RPT), Ethambutol (EMB), and Pyrazinamide (PZA). The treatments are highly effective and are used to treat people who are exposed and

Tuberculosis, also identified as TB, has been around for countless years. In the past, however, the disease was not known, which made it untreatable in most healthcare settings. The evolution of time made it possible to easily detect and manage tuberculosis before people were adversely affected by it. It is a disease that often affects an individual’s lungs, but it can also affect other body parts. The spine, kidneys, bones, and even the lymph nodes may sometimes be affected by the disease. The spread is usually from one person with the disease to an uninfected person through the air. Whenever individuals with the TB disease cough, laugh, or even talk, the disease is spread through tiny droplets that are found in the person’s respiratory

The study findings could be proved useful for the development of future methods of prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.

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).