What is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis has long been a disease that the human culture has been dealing with which entails significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. With dealing with such a horrific disease over the years, discoveries and evolution on the appropriate ways to contain, diagnose, and challengingly treat the disease has changed. One of the most concerning complications of this worldwide public health issue is the ability for it to quickly spread in high populated areas while becoming ever more resistant to forms of treatment not available in all locations around the world. This is a serious public

Tuberculosis is most of the feared and widespread that has harassed humans. Tuberculosis is a disease that affects the lungs and other organs too. This is a very serious disease that can cause death and the worse part is that this disease travels to one person to another. In the book, Know about Tuberculosis, a boy who has tuberculosis sneezed on another boy named Kevin who did not automatically catch tuberculosis, but the terms have taken root. According to the book, Know about Tuberculosis, “In the United States, about ten to fifteen million people are infected with this disease, but only ten percent of people are infected; however doctors assume that the battle against tuberculosis is increasing around the world.” Tuberculosis is among the major concerns for the World Health Organization due to its contagious nature.

Tuberculosis is a deadly disease that is now affecting our world and the people living in it in a horrible way. Due to many factors such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, and lack of health care, many third world and developing countries have been left very vulnerable to tuberculosis. It is affecting a large part of these countries and is leading them deeper into poverty and sickness. The effort to help these countries against tuberculosis has only been slightly effective against this widespread and destructive disease.

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

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.

Tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria “Mycobacterium Tuberculosis” and is mainly causes infection of the lungs (WHO, 2016). Its mode of transmission is airborne, so it can be passed on by inhalation of airborne droplets which carrying the bacteria, when an infected patient coughs, sneezes, or spits the TB germs into the air (WHO, 1026). Among the symptoms of active TB are: cough with sputum and blood, chest pains, weakness, fever and night sweats (WHO, 2016). Most at risk to get the TB infection are people with weakened immune system such as people who are suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, severe kidney disease, silicosis and especially HIV infection (CDC, 2016). Children and Tobacco users are also at greater risk to fall ill with TB.

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis (TB) is the number two killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent (WHO, 2017). In 2015, 10.4 million new cases have been identified and 1.8 million people have died from this disease (WHO, 2017). TB is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium TB, and the majority of TB deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. This disease is curable and preventable, but the lack of access to proper healthcare and medication administration makes it a concern for the most of the world’s population. TB is an airborne disease that can transmit when an infected person coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs, or talks. The majority of TB cases can be cured when the right medications are available and

Among many misconceptions, tuberculosis is not a disease of the past. Tuberculosis remains a public health issue. It is estimated that one-third of the total world population is infected by tuberculosis (TB). The American lung association (2013) states, in 2011 alone there were nearly 9,000,000 new diagnosed cases of tuberculosis around the world and an estimated 1.4 million deaths because of this disease. In the United States, TB is not as common (but still a problem). In 2011, only 10,500 people reported having TB (Trends in Tuberculosis Morbidity and

Diagnosing tuberculosis infection in individuals who are not ill is primarily done with a tuberculin skin test that is read by a healthcare worker in 48 to 72 hours. Positive skin tests are an indication that the individual has been exposed to the tuberculosis germ. Additional testing such as chest x-rays or sputum cultures are needed to detect active disease. Latent TB infection is treated with anti-tubercular medications for a period of six to nine months. Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is a vaccine used in many countries outside of the United States. However, individuals who have had this vaccine can still develop TB. (cdc.gov)

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most commonly affects the lungs. The etiologic agent can be expelled from one infected person via a sneeze or a cough, and enter the air and then the body of another person, leading to another infected person (“Tuberculosis, 2012). According to “What is TB?” (n.d.), someone who has diagnosed tuberculosis but is not receiving any form of treatment can pass the disease to up to 15 people in on year. Treatment of TB is necessary, so if symptoms are ignored, an infected person could die. Prevalence of this disease is not as common in the United States as it is in other countries. In 2014, there were approximately 9,421 reported cases; trends show that TB prevalence continues to decreases each year. Of

Communicable Disease Paper Tuberculosis  Communicable diseases rely on fluid exchange, contaminated substance, or close contact to travel from an infected carrier to a healthy individual. Many people have never heard of a disease called tuberculosis (TB) or not fully aware how serious this disease really is. I will briefly summarize the research that was conducted on tuberculosis by describing the disease in details and discussing efforts to control it, indentify environmental factors related to tuberculosis, and explain the influence of lifestyles, socioeconomic status, as well as disease management. I will also briefly describe what public health departments are doing to reduce the threat, and include data, evidence, and plan to

Where health care provider may do further investigation to determine the type of TB the person has.

Intro: Tuberculosis is a disease that affects many individuals throughout the world, and not always with the same prevalence.

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 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).