TUBERCULOSIS

 TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE:

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection, mainly in the lungs (pneumonia) caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is usually transferred from person to person by breathing infected air during close contact.

  Two organisms cause tuberculosis :
  

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis

•  Mycobacterium bovis.

 -TB can remain inactive (dormant) state for years without causing symptoms or spread to other people.

When the patient's immune system with dormant TB is weakened, TB is active (again) and cause an infection in the lungs or other parts of the body.
The bacteria usually attack the lungs but can also damage or other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air Zichem when a person with tuberculosis of the lungs or throat coughs, speaks or CUSTOM. If you expose em, go to your doctor for testing.

 

  SYMPTOMS OF TB IN THE LUNGS MAY BE:

•         A bad cough that three weeks or longer

•        weight loss

•    Coughing up blood or mucus

•         Weakness or tiredness

•         Fever and chills

•         Night sweats

If not treated properly, TB can be deadly. You can usually active tuberculosis cured by taking a thesis for a number of drugs long period of time. People with latent TB can take medicine em, not so with developing active TB .

• Three things  that can happen when you are infected with TB:

•    Your immune system (body's natural defense against infection and disease) kills the bacteria and you no longer have symptoms. This happens often.

•       Your immune system can kill the bacteria, but is able to build a protective barrier around the infection. This means that you do not have any symptoms, but the bacteria remain in the body. This is called latent tuberculosis.

•       Your immune system is unable to kill or contain the infection, and it slowly spreads to the lungs. This is known as active tuberculosis.
  

• Latent tuberculosis infection may develop active TB at a later stage, especially if your immune system becomes weakened.

VACCINATION:

• Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine, also known as the BCG vaccine may protect against TB. The BCG vaccine provides effective protection against tuberculosis in up to eight of the 10 people who have been given.

• BCG vaccinations are not routinely given as part of the childhood vaccination schedule, unless a baby is considered a higher than normal risk of coming into contact with TB.

• For example, babies born in the areas of inner city London, where TB is higher than in the rest of the country is likely to receive the BCG vaccination.

• Vaccinations may also be recommended for people at high risk of developing a TB infection. This includes health professionals who may be exposed to tuberculosis and children who recently arrived in the United Kingdom from countries with high levels of TB.