WHAT IS TUBERCULOSIS?
Tuberculosis (TB)
is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)
bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect
other parts of the body.
Most infections
show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis.
Around 10% of
latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kill
about half of those affected.
Infection of other
organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.
Tuberculosis also
remains a major killer because of the increase in drug-resistant strains. Over
time, some TB germs have developed the ability to survive despite medications.
Drug-resistant
strains of tuberculosis emerge when an antibiotic fails to kill all of the
bacteria it targets. The surviving bacteria become resistant to that drug and
often other antibiotics as well.
Some TB bacteria
have developed resistance to the most commonly used treatments, such as
isoniazid and rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane).
Some TB strains
have also developed resistance to drugs such as the antibiotics.
The risks factors
are that anyone can get tuberculosis, but certain factors can increase your
risk, including weakened immune system.
A healthy immune
system often successfully fights TB bacteria.
However, several
conditions and medications can weaken your immune system, including:
-HIV/AIDS
-Diabetes
-Severe kidney
disease
-Certain cancers
-Cancer treatment,
such as chemotherapy
-Drugs to prevent
rejection of transplanted organs
-Some drugs used to
treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and psoriasis
-Malnutrition or
low body weight
-Very young or
advanced age
-Traveling or
living in certain areas
WHAT ARE THE
SYMPTOMS OF TUBERCULOSIS?
Some people who
acquire Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, do not
experience symptoms.
This condition is known
as latent TB.
TB can stay dormant
for years before developing into active TB disease.
It's called active TB
if you have symptoms.
However, in some cases,
symptoms might not develop until months or even years after the initial infection.
Sometimes the infection
does not cause any symptoms. This is known as latent TB.
General symptoms of
TB.
Because active TB typically
causes many symptoms.
Your symptoms might
not begin until months or even years after you were initially infected.
While symptoms usually
relate to the respiratory system, they could affect other parts of the body, depending
on where the TB bacteria grow.
Symptoms caused by TB
in the lungs include:
-Extreme tiredness or
fatigue
-Cough lasting more
than 3 weeks
-Coughing up blood or
sputum (phlegm)
-Chest pain
-General TB symptoms
-Unexplainable
fatigue
-Weakness
-Fever
-Chill’s
-knight sweats
-Appetite loss
-Weight loss
-Along with general
symptoms
TB that spreads to other
organs can also cause blood in urine and loss of kidney function, if TB affects
the kidneys back pain and stiffness, muscle spasms, and spinal irregularity if
TB affects the spine, nausea and vomiting, confusion, and loss of consciousness,
if TB spreads to the brain. These symptoms can have many different causes, however,
and are not always a sign of TB. Most TB infections affect the lungs, which can
cause a persistent cough that lasts more than 3 weeks and usually brings up phlegm,
which may be bloody, breathlessness that gradually gets worse.
TB outside the lungs
less commonly, TB infections develop in areas outside the lungs, such as the small
glands that form part of the immune system (the lymph nodes), the bones and joints,
the digestive system, the bladder and reproductive system, and the brain and nerves
(the nervous system).
Symptoms can include:
-Persistent swollen
glands
-Abdominal pain
-Pain and loss of movement
in an affected bone or joint
confusion
-Persistent headache
-Fist (seizures)
HOW DOES THE TUBERCULOSIS
SPREAD?
Tuberculosis is spread
from one person to the next through the air when people who have active TB
in their lungs cough,
spit, speak, or sneeze.
People with Latent TB
do not spread the disease.
Active infection occurs
more often in people with HIV/AIDS and in those who smoke.
Diagnosis of active
TB is based on chest X-rays, as well as microscopic examination and culture of body
fluids.
WHAT’S THE CAUSE
OF TUBERCULOSIS?
Tuberculosis (TB) is
caused by a type of bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
It's spread when a person
with active TB disease in their lung’s coughs or sneezes and someone else inhales
the expelled droplets, which contain TB bacteria.
Although TB is spread
in a similar way to a cold or flu, it is not as contagious.
You would have to spend
prolonged periods (several hours) in close contact with an infected person to catch
the infection yourself. For example, TB infections usually spread between
family members who live in the same house. It would be highly unlikely for you to
become infected by sitting next to an infected person on, for instance, a bus or
train. Not everyone with TB is infectious. Children with TB or people with a TB
infection that occurs outside the lungs (extrapulmonary TB) do not spread the infection.
LATENT OR ACTIVE
TB
In most healthy people,
the immune system is able to destroy the bacteria that cause TB.
But in some cases, the
bacteria infect the body but do not cause any symptoms (latent TB), or the infection
begins to cause symptoms within weeks, months or even years (active TB).
Up to 10% of people
with latent TB eventually develop active TB years after the initial infection.
This usually happens
either within the first year or two of infection, or when the immune system is weakened
for example, if someone is having chemotherapy treatment for cancer.
THE OTHER FACTORS THAT
CAN CAUSE TUBERCULOSIS ARE
-Using substances.
Like IV drugs or excessive
alcohol use weakens your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to tuberculosis.
-Using tobacco.
Greatly increases the
risk of getting TB and dying of it.
-Working in health
care.
Or regular contact with
people who are ill increases your chances of exposure to TB bacteria.
-Living or working.
In a residential care
facility. People who live or work in prisons, homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals
or nursing homes are
all at a higher risk of tuberculosis due to overcrowding and poor ventilation.
-Living with someone
infected with TB.
And close contact with
someone who has TB increases your risk.
HOW CAN YOU PREVENT
TUBERCULOSIS?
Keeping your immune
system healthy and avoiding exposure to someone with active TB is the best way to
prevent a TB infection.
To prevent the transmission
of tuberculosis are improving ventilation in door spaces so there are fewer bacteria
in the air.
Using germicidal UV
lamps to kill airborne bacteria in buildings where there are people at high risk
of TB.
To protect your family
and friends if you have active TB
Follow these tips to
help keep your friends and family from getting sick:
-Stay home. Don't
go to work or school or sleep in a room with other people
-Ventilate the room.
Tuberculosis germs spread more easily in small closed spaces where air doesn't move.
If it's not too cold outdoors, open the windows and use a fan to blow indoor air
outside.
-Cover your mouth.
Use a tissue to cover your mouth anytime you laugh, sneeze or cough. Put the dirty
tissue in a bag, seal it and throw it away.
WHAT ARE THE TYPES
OF TUBERCULOSIS?
-The active TB Disease.
The active TB is an
illness in which the TB bacteria are rapidly multiplying and invading different
organs of the body.
The typical symptoms
of active TB variably include cough, phlegm, chest pain, weakness, weight loss,
fever, chills and sweating at night.
A person with active
pulmonary TB disease may spread TB to others by airborne transmission of infectious
particles coughed into the air.
If you are diagnosed
with an active TB disease, be prepared to give a careful, detailed history of
every person with whom
you have had contact. Since the active form may be contagious, these
people will need to
be tested, as well.
Multi-drug treatment
is employed to treat active TB disease.
Depending on state or
local public health regulations, you may be asked to take your antibiotics
under the supervision
of your physician or other healthcare professional.
This program is called
"Directly Observed Therapy" and is designed to prevent abandonment or
erratic treatment, which
may result in "failure" with continued risk of transmission or acquired
resistance of the bacteria
to the medications, including the infamous multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
- Miliary TB.
Miliary TB is a rare
form of active disease that occurs when TB bacteria find their way into the
bloodstream. In this
form, the bacteria quickly spread all over the body in tiny nodules and affect
multiple organs at once.
This form of TB can be rapidly fatal.
- Latent TB Infection.
Many of those who are
infected with TB do not develop overt disease. They have no symptoms and their chest
x-ray may be normal. The only manifestation of this encounter may be reaction to
the tuberculin skin test (TST) or interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). However,
there is an ongoing risk that the latent infection may escalate to active disease.
The risk is increased by other illnesses such as HIV or medications which compromise
the immune system. To protect against this, the United States employs a strategy
of preventive therapy or treatment of latent TB infection.
