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Cure TB
Tuberculosis
Info and photo source: Wikipedia
Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a
common and deadly infectious disease that is caused by mycobacteria, primarily
Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis most commonly affects the lungs (as
pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic
system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, bones, joints and even
the skin. Other mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium
africanum, Mycobacterium canetti and Mycobacterium microti can also cause
tuberculosis, but these species do not usually infect healthy adults.
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Public health campaigns tried to halt the spread of TB |
Over one-third of the world's population now
has the TB bacterium in their bodies and new infections are occurring at a rate
of one per second. Not everyone who is infected develops the disease and
asymptomatic latent TB infection is most common. However, one in ten latent
infections will progress to active TB disease which, if left untreated, kills
more than half of its victims. In 2004, 14.6 million people had active TB and
there were 8.9 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths, mostly in developing
countries. A rising number of people in the developed world contract
tuberculosis because their immune systems are compromised by immunosuppressive
drugs, substance abuse or HIV/AIDS.
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Scanning electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
The rise in HIV infection levels and the
neglect of TB control programs have enabled a resurgence of tuberculosis.
Drug-resistant strains of TB have emerged and are spreading (in 2000–2004, 20%
of cases were resistant to standard treatments and 2% were also resistant to
second-line drugs). TB incidence varies widely, even in neighboring countries,
and this appears to be caused by differences in healthcare. The World Health
Organization declared TB a global health emergency in 1993, and the Stop TB
Partnership proposed a Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis which aims to save 14
million lives between 2006 and 2015.
Symptoms
In the patients where TB becomes an active disease, 75% of these cases affect
the lungs, where the disease is called pulmonary TB. Symptoms include a
productive, prolonged cough of more than three weeks duration, chest pain and
coughing up blood. Systemic symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats,
appetite loss, weight loss and paling, and those afflicted are often easily
fatigued.
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Chest X-ray of a patient suffering from Tuberculosis |
When the infection spreads out of the lungs,
extra pulmonary sites include the pleura, central nervous system in meningitis,
lymphatic system in scrofula of the neck, genitourinary system in urogenital
tuberculosis, and bones and joints in Pott's disease of the spine. An especially
serious form is disseminated, or miliary tuberculosis. Extra pulmonary forms are
more common in immunosuppressed persons and in young children. Infectious
pulmonary TB may co-exist with extrapulmonary TB, which is not contagious.
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Mantoux tuberculin skin test
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