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 inhaling the germs which have been sprayed into the air by someone with the active disease who coughs.
However, inhaling the germ does not usually mean you will develop active disease.
A person's natural body defenses are usually able to control the infection so that it does not cause disease. In this case, the person would be infected, but not have active disease. Only about 10% of those infected will actually develop
TB in their lifetimes.
Active disease can occur in an infected person when the body's resistance is low or if there is a large or prolonged exposure to the germs that overcome the body's natural defenses. The body's response to active TB infection produces inflammation which can eventually damage the lungs. The amount of damage may be quite extensive, yet the symptoms may be minimal. The usual symptoms of disease due to TB are:
-Fever -Night sweats -Cough -Loss of appetite -Weight Loss -Blood in the sputum
(phlegm) -Loss of energy
Diagnosing TB
To diagnose TB, your clinician will gather five important pieces of information:
-Symptoms -History of possible exposure and onset of symptoms -Tuberculin skin test or PPD -Chest X-ray •Sputum test
Tuberculin Skin Test
The tuberculin skin test (or PPD) is performed with an extract of killed tuberculosis germs that is injected into the skin. If a person has been infected with tuberculosis, a lump will form at the site of the injection--this is a positive test. This generally means that TB germs have infected the body. It does not usually mean the person has active disease. People with positive skin tests but without active disease cannot transmit the infection to others.
Chest X-Ray
If a person has been infected with TB, but active disease has not developed, the chest X-ray usually will be normal. Most people with a positive PPD have normal chest X-rays and continue to be healthy. For such persons, preventive drug therapy may be recommended.
Paul Farmer designed several studies that he used to help create new TB treatment methods, including a study about a system called active case finding, which helps find TB cases more quickly. The previous system of tuberculosis case finding is known as passive case finding. Passive case finding is when tu...
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Infectious Disease – The Never-ending Threat). It is acquired by inhalation and is spreadable. The City of Toronto in accordance with Toronto Public Health have in place different specialty teams in regards to Tuberculosis (TB) who work together to provide support for individuals with TB as well as their families and to help prevent the spread of TB in Toronto (City of Toronto). Specifically, Toronto Public Health has a designated homeless and corrections team who manage TB disease and infection within the homeless/under-housed and corrections populations. Within this program, they use many environmental guidelines to access and diminish in the
PPD skin test is a way to detect mycobacteria infection. A positive PPD skin test is the result of a specific immune response against the antigen introduced into the skin of a person who has been exposed to mycobacteria either from previous infected with TB or from receiving BCG.
been previously touched by an infected person, will transmit the disease to the healthy person who
As the bacteria spread through the body, the recipient temperature would rise accompanied by a flood of other uncomfortable symptoms. In the most common form called Bubonic plague, the victim had “bubos or pus filled hard swellings” in the groin, neck, armpit, three of the places a persons lymph nodes are found. (Reedy, The Bubonic Plague” 1). These bubos contained the bacilli or bacteria that was the plague. A bubo could sometimes become as large as an orange, making it possible to see the bacilli moving through the victims skin (Reedy, “The Bubonic Plague” 1).
One of the first steps to treating Tuberculosis is identifying which form has developed in the body. The two forms that could progress in the body are latent Tuberculosis infection and active Tuberculosis infection (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Latent Tuberculosis is the dormant form of the bacteria, meaning that it is inactive and doesn?t cause an infectious reaction in the body. Even if the latent form enters the body, treatment should be sought (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Latent Tuberculosis can become active Tuberculosis easily though, especially if the immune system is compromised by another infection, like HIV (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Active Tuberculosis infects the body immediately. Symptoms show in the body meaning the bacteria is effecting the cells of the body. Identifying the form is important because treatment is dependent upon it. Testing for TB involves a skin test, usually within seven work-days of contact with the bacteria. Without knowing what is in the body, the drugs won?t be as effective and might even cause drug-resistance.
can be prevented by a vaccine. In 20 - 30% of the cases the infection spreads
called PPD Tuberculin under the top layer of the skin with a very small needle
...tandards for HIV reporting. Although this is commonly the physician, mid-wife or advance practice nurse roles, emphasizing on the healthcare provider that orders the diagnostic test to report the findings.
Imaging tests. Imaging tests usually aren’t necessary, but in some instances, especially when no evidence of infection is found, They may be helpful. For example, an X-ray or ultrasound may help out other potential causes inflammation, such as a tumor or structure
Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases are treated at home, one in twenty children die of the disease before they reach the age of five. Pregnant women are also more vulnerable to disease and in certain parts of Africa, they are four times as likely to contract the disease and only half as likely to survive it.
Primary tuberculosis is the initial infection of the host, usually being mild and asymptomatic. A healthy person recently infected with the mycobacterium may exhibit flu-like symptoms and has no reason to suspect tuberculosis. Left untreated, the bacilli infect and multiply within pulmonary alveolar macrophages, migrating to the hilar lymph nodes. An immune response is exhibited by the T-helper cells, and inflammation develops at multiple sites. A person may test positive in the tuberculin skin test at this point, and a chest x-ray may shows opacities in the lungs.
Infectious diseases are the disorders caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasite who live both inside and outside our bodies and are normally helpful but can cause infectious diseases to the human (body) system under certain conditions. And for a disease to be infectious, there is what is called ‘’chain of infection’’ that takes place before. And this can be seen in the below diagram:
Being all members of the human race surely we have all sympathized for the less fortunate; whether it was for what they had or what they didn’t. There is a condition that most have never considered, and probably have never heard of. Imagine big white and red spots that decorate every part of your body so that they can’t be hidden. On the inside you have a painful sinus infection and after a while a loss of peripheral nerve sensation so bad that your hands and feet go numb. You could go blind or you could loose your nose, ears, or even legs to amputation. Unfortunately the physical ailments are the best part. Throughout history leprosy sufferers have been cast off from society with as much concern that dead bodies are sent to graves.
stains on sputum’s and body fluids, and have completed a few AFB cultures. Apart from