Tuberculosis (TB)

 

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.