Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is common infectious diseases which are caused by different strains of bacteria like mycobacteria in general Mycobacterium tuberculosis induce tuberculosis in humans. This disease targets respiratory system; it can also affect other parts of body by just spreading through the air. Hence the individual with tuberculosis usually from respiratory infections resulting in cough spit and sneezing problems. Most of the infections in human are asymptomatic and latent infection in nature. One among ten individuals is seriously subjected to active diseases which are left without any treatment and thereby it kills almost 50% of the victims.

The individual with tuberculosis show the following symptoms.

• Fever
• Night sweats
• Weight loss
• Chronic cough
• Blood tinged sputum

The other organs are infected depending on the wide range of symptoms. Tuberculosis diagnosis depends on the radiology nothing but chest x-ray, blood test, tuberculin skin test, microbiological culture of body fluids and microscopic examinations. The treatment of tuberculosis is that much easy as it requires more antibiotic intake. The contacts can also be screened for testing if required. As tuberculosis patient intakes more number of multi drug resistant antibiotics as the organism grows antibiotic resistant microorganisms. Tuberculosis can be prevented with the aid of screening programs and drugs. Generally Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) is administered as tuberculosis vaccine. It is estimated that one third of the human population in world are found to be infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Newer infection occurrence takes place at the rate of every second. The absolute number of infections has increased widely compared to early population growth. It is also found that individuals are so week because of administering drugs like immunosuppressive drugs and are more exposed to Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and substance abuse. The epidemic distribution of tuberculosis is not constant all over the globe.

Questions:

• What is tuberculosis?
• What are signs and symptoms of tuberculosis?
• How do you diagnose tuberculosis?