Tuberculosis is a common and very dangerous as well as a contagious disease which can be caused by a range of strains of mycobacteria. Generally Mycobacterium tuberculosis attacks in humans. The most frequent attack can be held in the lungs of human being however, the disease can also spread to other parts of the body. It can be spread through the air. Mainly the disease can attack through the infected person's cough, sneeze, or spit. It is a contagious disease and therefore, precaution is to be needed for infected person's cough, sneeze, or spit.
Many people in the world are being infected with this disease as it is one of the most frequent and a fearsome disease and it can be measured as one third of the total world population who are now almost infected with this disease. According to WHO estimation in the year 2007, there were 13.7 million chronic active cases, which had been seen mostly in the developing countries and out of all there were 9.3 million new cases, and 1.8 million deaths were in the estimation report.
A chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss are the most common symptoms of this disease. Therefore, it has been alerted nowadays that, if a person experiences continuous cough from three weeks he/she has to consult doctors immediately.
Causes
Tuberculosis is caused by bacterial attack and it is a contagious disease. The name of the bacteria which attacks human is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is caused mostly in immunodeficient people.
Symptoms
The important symptoms of Tuberculosis are chest pain, coughing up blood, and a productive and lingering cough for more than three weeks. There are some of the systematic symptoms of this disease too and these are continuous fever, chills, frequently getting night sweats, immediate appetite loss, weight loss, whiteness, and feeling exhausted in most of the time. The infected person has odorous mucus. Some of the extra pulmonary infections can be included, like the pleura in tuberculosis pleurisy for which the central nervous system gets affected.
Types:
It is basically of two types namely Tuberculosis meningitis and Tuberculosis Pericarditis. Some other causes of Tuberculosis are namely - M. bovis, M. africanum, M. canetti and M. microti and M. africanum.
Treatment:
The killing of the bacteria is involved as the main treatment of Tuberculosis. There are many useful treatments available to get good result however, the treatments of Tuberculosis are really crucial because the patients lose the support of the immune system and hence high powerful antibiotic may affect differently. Most importantly, the unusual structure and chemical composition of the myco bacterial cell wall makes ineffective the entry of drugs and also that hinders several antibiotics. Generally, it requires much time to remove the bacteria from the body permanently and therefore the patient has to be fit for active treatment.
WHO recommended Directly Observed Treatment Short-course which is abbreviated as DOTS in 1970 as it was a proven medication. There is multi drug resistant tuberculosis treatment, used as first-line medication, and the second-line medication is anti tuberculosis which is necessary to cure the patient.
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