Tuberculosis Essay

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Transmission Tuberculosis is an air-borne disease, hence, it can be passed from an infected person to a healthy individual through coughing, sneezing and other salivary secretions. Tuberculosis is caused by the transfer of Mycobacteriun Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis) also known as Tubercle Bacillus, a small particle of 1-5 microns in diameter, due to the small size, when an infected person sneezes or coughs, about 3,000 particles are expelled. M. Tuberculosis responsible for tuberculosis is able to stay in the air for a long period of time (about 6hoursAnother way of acquiring Tuberculosis is by drinking unpasteurized milk, milk straight from cow, although this is not a common mode of transmission, it can be found in rural areas. Ingestion of contaminated cow milk transmits Mycobacterium Bovis, the animal form which is still potent enough to cause tuberculosis in humans. ). Tuberculosis transmission is affected by exposure, socioeconomic status of person, proximity, immune status of uninfected individual (%&&%&? CDC). Tuberculosis is sometimes called disease of the poor, poverty restricts lots of people to live in a small space, leading to overcrowding. Smaller spaces increase the possibility of M. Tuberculosis to spread and infect an individual. Also immunocompromised individual are susceptible to acquiring tuberculosis. For example, HIV patients, malnourished individual are more susceptible to tuberculosis compared to the average healthy individual. People that are constantly in close range to infected individual are at higher risk of getting infected because, they are more likely to share and breathe the same air. This will lead to inhalation of M. Tuberculosis and might eventually lead to tuberculosis. Epidemiology Tuber... ... middle of paper ... ...macrophage to kill bacteria that might have escaped from granuloma. Latent TB is characterized by absence of disease activity. It can be detected by TBT and Interferon-γ release assay (IGRA) and chest x-rays. The chest x-ray usually result normal due to the inactivity of the disease. TNF-α helps contain latent TB infection and keeps it from becoming active TB. Patient that have been treated withTNF antagonist are at greater risk of reactivation of LTBI to active TB Active TB patients are IGRA positive and are symptomatic. The granuloma model: macrophages get infected in non-activated macrophages, necrosis occurs, lymphocytes also activate macrophages. MTB continue to grow and spread. The tubercles bexome liuqified and extracellular bacterial growth ensue, releases liquifed caseous material into the bronchiole causes causing and this can be transmitted tooter people.

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