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Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that usually attacks the lungs but can attack almost any part of the body. When someone with untreated TB coughs or sneezes the air is filled with droplets containing the bacteria. Every year, tuberculosis kills nearly 2 million people worldwide. Signs of tubercular damage have been found in Egyptian mummies and in bones dating back at least 5,000 years. Today, despite advances in treatment, TB is a global pandemic, fueled by the spread of HIV/AIDS, poverty, a lack of health services and the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium that causes the disease. When people with TB in their lungs or throat cough, laugh, sneeze, sing, or even talk, the germs that cause TB may be spread into the air. As the general standard of living and medical care improved in the United States, the incidence of TB decreased. By the 1960s, it wasn't even in the top 10 causes of death among children of any age group. Someone with TB disease is sick and can spread the disease to other people. A person with TB disease needs to see a doctor as soon as possible. Left untreated, tuberculosis can be fatal. With proper care, however, most cases of tuberculosis can be treated even those resistant to the drugs commonly used against the disease.

Tuberculosis (TB) describes an infectious disease that has plagued humans since the Neolithic times.Since anti-tuberculosis antibiotics were developed in the 1940s, tuberculosis has been taken less seriously than it once was. A variety of factors, however, had made it a growing health concern, including shrinking public health resources, more people with weakened immune systems due to AIDS, increasing resistance to antibiotics and extreme poverty in many parts of the world. Even then you may not develop symptoms of the disease. Or, symptoms may not show up until many years later. However some patients - especially those with compromised immune systems - may proceed directly from initial TB infection to active tuberculosis. Only those people at high risk of contracting TB will be vaccinated, as opposed to all school children in the UK.

Causes of Tuberculosis

The common Causes of Tuberculosis :

• Alcohol
• Loss of sleep
• Mental stress and strain
• Dietic errors
• Low body resistance
• Unhealthy living style
• Living in stuffy rooms
• Exposure to cold
• Smoking

Symptoms of Tuberculosis

Some Symptoms of Tuberculosis :

• Fever.
• Night sweats
• Joint pain, chest pain, pain in the spine.
• Fatigue.
• Wheezing.
• Loss of appetite .
• Weight loss.
• Chills.
• Coughing up blood .
• Pain with breathing or coughing (pleurisy).
• Diarrhea sweating.

Treatment of Tuberculosis

• Treatment takes that long because the disease organisms grow very slowly and, unfortunately, also die very slowly.
• Doctors generally use a combination of 4 antibiotics to treat active TB, whether it occurs in the lungs or elsewhere.
• Hospitalization may be indicated to prevent the spread of the disease to others until the contagious period has been resolved with drug therapy.
• If you're diagnosed with active TB, you're likely to begin taking four medications -isoniazid, rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane), ethambutol ( Myambutol) and pyrazinamide.
• For patients who are awake and alert, an oral dose of activated charcoal (1 g/kg) with sorbitol can be administered.
• If tests show that you have TB infection but not active disease, your doctor may recommend preventive drug therapy to destroy dormant bacteria that might become active in the future.
• Prehospital providers should be equipped with respiratory masks meeting standards for prevention of TB transmission and should receive annual tuberculin skin testing.

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