what is tubeculosis?

Question

i had tuberculosis when i was 8 years old but i dont remember what is it? my aunt has it too and she is preagent what are the risk of being preagent and having tuberculosis.

Answer 1

WHAT IS TB?

Tuberculosis (often called TB) is an infectious disease that usually attacks the lungs, but can attack almost any part of the body. Tuberculosis is spread from person to person through the air. 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. If another person breathes in these germs there is a chance that they will become infected with tuberculosis. Repeated contact is usually required for infection.

It is important to understand that there is a difference between being infected with TB and having TB disease. Someone who is infected with TB has the TB germs, or bacteria, in their body. The body's defenses are protecting them from the germs and they are not sick. 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.

Even if someone becomes infected with tuberculosis, that does not mean they will get TB disease. Most people who become infected do not develop TB disease because their body's defenses protect them. Experts believe that about 10 million Americans are infected with TB germs. Only about 10 percent of these people will develop TB disease in their lifetime. The other 90 percent will never get sick from the TB germs or be able to spread them to other people.

TB is an increasing and major world wide problem, especially in Africa where the spread is facilitated by AIDS. It is estimated that nearly 1 billion people will become newly infected, over 150 million will become sick, and 36 million will die worldwide between now and 2020 if control is not further strengthened. Each year there are more than 8.7 million cases and close to 2 million deaths attributed to TB; 100,000 of those 2 million deaths occur among children.



WHO GETS IT?

Anyone can get TB. People of all races and nationalities. The rich and poor. And at any age. But for many reasons, some groups of people are at higher risk to get active TB disease. The groups that are at high risk include:

People with HIV infection (the AIDS virus)
People in close contact with those known to be infectious with TB
People with medical conditions that make the body less able to protect itself from disease (for example: diabetes, the dust disease silicosis, or people undergoing treatment with drugs that can suppress the immune system, such as long-term use of corticosteroids)
Foreign-born people from countries with high TB rates
Some racial or ethnic minorities
People who work in or are residents of long-term care facilities (nursing homes, prisons, some hospitals)
Health care workers and others such as prison guards
People who are mal-nourished
Alcoholics and IV drug users


WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF TB?

A person with TB infection will have no symptoms. A person with TB disease may have any, all or none of the following symptoms:

A cough that will not go away
Feeling tired all the time
Weight loss
Loss of appetite
Fever
Coughing up blood
Night sweats
These symptoms can also occur with other types of lung disease so it is important to see a doctor and to let the doctor determine if you have TB.

It is also important to remember that a person with TB disease may feel perfectly healthy or may only have a cough from time to time. If you think you have been exposed to TB, get a TB skin test.



HOW DOES TB DEVELOP?

There are two possible ways a person can become sick with TB disease:

The first applies to a person who may have been infected with TB for years and has been perfectly healthy. The time may come when this person suffers a change in health. The cause of this change in health may be another disease like AIDS or diabetes. Or it may be drug or alcohol abuse or a lack of health care because of homelessness.
Whatever the cause, when the body's ability to protect itself is damaged, the TB infection can become TB disease. In this way, a person may become sick with TB disease months or even years after they first breathed in the TB germs.
The other way TB disease develops happens much more quickly. Sometimes when a person first breathes in the TB germs the body is unable to protect itself against the disease. The germs then develop into active TB disease within weeks.
WHAT IS THE TREATMENT FOR TB?

Treatment for TB depends on whether a person has TB disease or only TB infection.

A person who has become infected with TB, but does not have TB disease, may be given preventive therapy. Preventive therapy aims to kill germs that are not doing any damage right now, but could break out later.

If a doctor decides a person should have preventive therapy, the usual prescription is a daily dose of isoniazid (also called "INH"), an inexpensive TB medicine. The person takes INH for six to nine months (up to a year for some patients), with periodic checkups to make sure the medicine is being taken as prescribed.

What if the person has TB disease? Then treatment is needed.

Years ago a patient with TB disease was placed in a special hospital for months, maybe even years, and would often have surgery. Today, TB can be treated with very effective drugs.

Often the patient will only have to stay a short time in the hospital and can then continue taking medication at home. Sometimes the patient will not have to stay in the hospital at all. After a few weeks a person can probably even return to normal activities and not have to worry about infecting others.

The patient usually gets a combination of several drugs (most frequently INH plus two to three others), usually for nine months. The patient will probably begin to feel better only a few weeks after starting to take the drugs.

It is very important, however, that the patient continue to take the medicine correctly for the full length of treatment. If the medicine is taken incorrectly or stopped the patient may become sick again and will be able to infect others with TB. As a result many public health authorities recommend Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), in which a health care worker insures that the patient takes his/her medicine.

If the medicine is taken incorrectly and the patient becomes sick with TB a second time, the TB may be harder to treat because it has become drug resistant. This means that the TB germs in the body are unaffected by some drugs used to treat TB.

Multi-drug resistant TB is very dangerous, so patients should be sure that they take all of their medicine correctly.

Regular checkups are needed to see how treatment is progressing. Sometimes the drugs used to treat TB can cause side effects. It is important both for people undergoing preventive therapy and people being treated for TB disease to immediately let a doctor know if they begin having any unusual symptoms.



TB: WHAT YOU SHOULD DO


Find out if you're infected.

Certain people such as those infected with HIV of health care workers should be tested regularly. You should also be tested if there's any chance you have been infected, recently or many years ago.

If the test is negative:

A negative reaction usually means that you are not infected and no treatment is needed. However, if you have TB symptoms your doctor must continue to look for the cause. Sometimes, when a person has only recently been infected, or when his or her immune system isn't working properly, the test may be falsely negative.

If the test is positive:

A significant reaction usually means that you have been infected with the TB germ. It does not necessarily mean that you have TB disease. Cooperate with the doctor when he or she recommends a chest X ray and possibly other tests.

If the doctor recommends treatment to prevent sickness, follow the recommendations. If medicine is prescribed, be sure to take it as directed.

If you don't need treatment, do what the doctor tells you to do about follow-up. The doctor may simply say to return for another checkup if you get into a special risk situation for TB sickness or develop symptoms.

If you are sick with TB disease, follow the doctor's recommendations for treatment.

Answer 2

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection that is most often found in the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can spread to other parts of the body (extrapulmonary TB). TB in the lungs is easily spread to other people through coughing or laughing. Treatment is often successful, though the process is long. Treatment time averages between 6 and 9 months.

Answer 3

Tuberculosis- A specific infective disease caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. [Koch's tubercle bacillus(rod shaped organism)].
Avian Tuberculosis- endemic (recurring in a locality) in birds and rarely seen in man.
Bovine Tuberculosis- endemic in cattle and transmitted to man via infected cow's milk, causing disease of the glands and rarely of the lungs and joints.
Human Tuberculosis- endemic in man and the usual cause of pulmonary (pertaining to the lungs) and other forms of Tuberculosis
Miliary Tuberculosis- a generalized acute form in which, as a result of blood stream dissemination , minute, multiple tuberculous foci are scattered throughout many organs of the body.

Answer 4

Tuberculosis (commonly abbreviated as TB) is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (Miliary tuberculosis), genitourinary system, bones and joints.

Answer 5

Tuberculosis is the most common major infectious disease today, infecting two billion people or one-third of the world's population, with nine million new cases of active disease annually, resulting in two million deaths, mostly in developing countries.

It is a bacterial infection.

Answer 6

is she getting dealt with for the tuberculosis? that is her principal crisis:it's going to take a number of months in your mom to think "average" once more. The tuberculosis can assault her bones or lungs. she isn't hooked on the ventilator:her lungs are most commonly bothered with TB, and she or he cant breathe accurately on her possess. Is your mother taking treatment for the TB? Give it a while:she cant recuperate in a pair weeks from TB.

Answer 7

TB is VERY contagious
I contracted it from a patient while I was working in a doctors office as a receptionist because I was breathing "her" air as she talked to me

your aunt need to be going to a doctor

Answer 8

its a lung disease resulting in coughing up blood and dying. highly contagious. an immunisation is available to prevent this.

Answer 9

aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg dont cough on me

its a lung disease that is highly contagious

so wipe your keyboard and cover ya'lls mouth

Answer 10

its a chronic cough and shortness of breathe from a virus that is not contagious and is passed in the air

Answer 11

a virus in the lungs.