Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by a germ (bacterium) called
Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This germ primarily affects the lungs and may infect anyone at any age.
In the United States, the number of TB cases steadily decreased until 1986 when an increase was noted; TB has continued to rise since. Today, ten million individuals are infected in the U.S., as evidenced by positive skin tests, with approximately 26,000 new cases of active disease each year. The increase in TB cases is related to HIV/AIDS, homelessness, drug abuse and immigration of persons with active infections.
How is TB Contracted?
TB is a contagious or infectious disease that is spread from person-to- person.
A person is usually infected by
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Since the advent of anti-tuberculosis drugs in the 1940s, the treatment of drug susceptible tuberculosis has become highly effective if administered and taken properly. Treatment no longer requires prolonged hospital stays. In many cases, a patient with a new case of TB can be treated at home. Others will enter the hospital to be placed on a medication program and to be isolated until the disease is controlled. When the person is no longer infectious, he or she can leave the hospital and continue on medication at home. Hospitalization in such cases may be a few weeks to several months depending on the severity of the disease and the effectiveness of the treatment program.
In most cases, a treatment program for drug-susceptible TB involves taking two or four drugs for a period of time ranging from six to nine months. Medications may include isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol or streptomycin. It is necessary to take multiple drugs and to take all of the doses prescribed, because all of the TB germs cannot be destroyed by one drug.
It is important to realize that hospitalization for a TB patient, when necessary, represents only the beginning of treatment. Since active TB is slow to respond completely to therapy, medications prescribed by a clinician must be taken faithfully for a long period of time (at least 6 months, in some cases for a year or more). If the TB medications are not taken regularly, serious complications may develop:
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
There are many different care strategies used to support individuals who suffer from TB, where each one will have its own job and will care for the individual in similar ways. One part of the care strategies used is the support which is given to the patient, where the other is the medication and actual treatment they will be receiving. The first part of the care strategies used will include;
Acute cases develop after 1-14 days of incubation and symptoms usually last 1 to 3 weeks.
Thank you for sharing this week discussion post on Tuberculosis (TB) treatment failures in Ethiopia. I agree with you the Health Belief Model (HBM) has it pros and cons like any other behavioral theory (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, 2015). However, to focus on HBM major limitation is its inability to predict actual practices to reduce risky behaviors. As it can explain, the perceived barriers from cognitive factors associated with the cue to actions, but can not wholeheartedly justify the variance in the behavior (Glanz et al., 2015). Thus, is due to the poor construct that provides the lack of definite rules, which weakens the validity components in HBM to only give a list of variables to establish relationships (Orji, Vassileva, & Mandryk, 2012). Therefore, much cannot be stated to justify those who actually change their behaviors to receive TB prevention in Ethiopia under the HBM.
“Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. In 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB and 1.3 million died from the disease. The number of TB deaths is unacceptably large given that most are preventable,” (WHO). However, even though numbers of those infected are high, the rate of new TB cases is on the decline at roughly 2% per year. The slow decline rate is due to many things including people not being informed about the disease, and improper usage of medicines leading to drug resistant strains of TB.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that has afflicted individuals from the Old World for several thousands of years. This has been well documented in the archaeological record. However, the origins and development of tuberculosis in the New World have been the subject of multiple controversies. These controversies have stemmed from the discussion of whether or not Europeans introduced tuberculosis to the Americas. Evidence from South America has clearly shown that tuberculosis was present in the New World prior to European contact. The evidence of pre-contact tuberculosis has raised several questions on the origins of tuberculosis in the Americas and the possible causes for post-contact tuberculosis epidemics. This essay
Tuberculosis has been known since ancient times, under a variety of names in different historical periods. It has been confused with certain other disease, but its basic nature, namely, its wasting effect and its destructive character, has always been recognized. Until very recently it was known as the number-one killer of the human race. Men and women at all stages of life, but primarily between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five were subject to the disease. The infectious nature of Tuberculosis came to be recognized in early historical times. The prevailing view varied greatly with different people, depending on their beliefs and state of civilization, as usual, the wrath of the gods was brought into the picture as the proper explanation for the disease.
Although the epidemiology is concerning, TB is a treatable and curable disease. The WHO has detailed guidelines for the treatment of TB, which specifies that successful TB treatment requires accurate early diagnosis, drug resistance screening, HIV screening, correct drug selection and long-term compliance. (1) The current first line treatment for drug-sensitive TB includes an ‘intensive phase’ of 2 months and a ‘continuation phase’ of 4 to 7 months. The drugs used in the initiation phase include rifampicin (RIF), isoniazid (INH), pyrazinamide (PYR) and ethambutol (EMB), with RIF and INH being continued until MTB is eradicated. (1) This four-drug treatment regimen for drug-sensitive TB disease has been in widespread use for over 20 years, and has achieved cure rates of more than 95% in trial conditions. (5) However, this regimen also has unwanted aspects, which include the lengthy duration of the treatment, the side effects the drugs and, more concerning, the development of drug resistance, have significantly limited its use. (12)
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by a bacterial infection. Around 40% of people who have active TB disease have the infection in another part of their body. It can affect several organs of the human body, including the lymph glands, brain, spine, kidneys, or other organ, but it predominately establishes itself in the lungs where it is called Pulmonary TB. Researchers have calculated that in 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.3 million died from TB. “Tuberculosis is second only to HIV as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent”. HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of tuberculosis cases around the world. Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.
Tuberculosis is defined as a serious, infectious disease that is known to target one of the body’s main, vital organs, the lungs. Tuberculosis (TB) is a mycobacterium disease and is air bourn spread. An air bourn spread disease can be contracted from simply one person sneezing around you who is infected. Tuberculosis presents itself as a Public Health issue. In epidemiological perspective, researchers have dedicated enormous amounts of time and money into the prevention of TB. I believe that TB is in interest to the public because of its fatal consequence and its ability to go from host to host in a very timely manner. TB epidemics began to increase in the 1980’s due to larger sums of people who were inflected with HIV. (1998). When infected with HIV the human immune system becomes very weak and fragile and cannot fight off bad bacteria. Organizations in Canada such as the Public Health Network Council and Canada’s Center for Disease Control work on the prevention of Fatal diseases such as TB. The Pan- Canadian Public Health Network also provides Canadians the information that they need to know on infectious diseases and provides preventative techniques. Managing TB is an art, as well as a science. The quote by the World Health Organization sums it up pretty well. “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. ” As well as being physically “scientifically” healthy, the mental health aspect needs to
To promote adequate monitoring and treatment, a population infected with TB has to be isolated if the TB in active form, should follow medication regimen, and be compliant with physician treatment plan. Also, the significance of the community nurses’ role shouldn’t be underestimated in prevention and in controlling TB. According the CDC (2017) 70% of case detection occurs due to nurses’ involvement. The community nurses are primary service in
I chose to examine the case study regarding Tuberculosis (TB) and how the Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse (DOTS) was used to help to reduce the incidence of the disease in China. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2013, 9 million people became ill from TB and 1.5 million people died as a result of the disease (WHO, 2015). In China, tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease that causes death among young adults in that country (Center for Global Development, 2015). As a result of the DOTS program, China was able to reduce the incidence of new cases of TB by 95% and have a cure rate of 90% for those who were unsuccessfully treated in the past (Center for Global Development, 2015). The DOTS program has been effective in reducing the incidence of TB all over the world.
Tuberculosis is a prime leading health problem throughout the universe. It is the second utmost cause of death from a contagious agent killing nearly 20 million people each year. There are two major elements that are contributing to the current TB endemic and its combined morbidity and mortality include; growing human immunodeficiency virus outbreaks and rising prevalence of resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains of the most effective anti-TB drugs. Another causative to the development of resistance is the destitute quality of drugs, improper treatment management, patient non-cooperation and malabsorption due to other integral conditions. This paper is comprised of the pathophysiology of TB, etiology, diagnosis, signs and
Depending on the zone the treatment regimen for each country has some specific regimen which is being followed in that specific country and zone as all the countries have their own margin of condition. Here, the standard regimen recommended by WHO in 1997 for the tuberculosis treatment which is only modified in complex cases which has been later discussed, is as follows,
Therefore, antimicrobial agents were used in the treatment of TB including TB treatment and antimicrobial activity such as isoniazid, pyrazinamide and ethambutol for initial regimens; and capreomycin, viomycin or cycloserine in recent years. There were some drugs were used for indication including rifamycins, aminoglycosides and fluoroquinolones.