TB

bacterial infection

Tuberculosis(tb)

What is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling either by two bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis. These are pathogens that live inside the human cell, particulary in the lungs.This is the first site of infection but the bacteria can spread throughout the whole body.

*Microscopical examination of sputum of bacteris *Chest X-ray

* Racking cough* Coughing blood *Chest pain *Shortness of breath *Fever *Sweating *Weight loss

Methods of diagnosis

Symptoms

Methods of transmisson

* By airbone droplets (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) via undercooked meat. *By unpasteurised (Mycobacterium bovis)

• Some peoplebecome infected and develop TB quickly, while in others the bacteria remain inactive for many years.
• people with this inactive infection do not sread the disease to others.
• however the bacteria can become active, and this is mostly likely to happen when people are weakend by other diseases, suffer from malnutrition or become infected with HIV.
• TB is often the first opportunistic infection to strike people with HIV.
• HIV may reactivate dormant infections of M.tuberculosis which may have been present from childhood.
• TB now is the leading cause of death among HIV- positive people.

How HIV and TB are linked

• TB is spread when infected people with active form of TB cough or sneez and the bacteria are carried in the air in tiny droplets of liquid. Transmission occurs when people who are uninfected inhale the droplets.
• TB spread most rapidly among people:
• * living in overcrowded conditions.
• * people who sleep close together in large numbers.

• The form of TB caused by M.bovis also occurs in cattle and is spread to humans in meat and milk,

Transmission of TB

• There are high rates of incidence all across the developing countries and in Russia and surrounding countries.
• High rates are also found in cities with ppopulations of migrants from countries where TB is more common.
• The incidence in such areas is as high as in less economically developed countries. This iincrease is due in part to the following factors:
• some strains of TB bacteria are resistant to drugs.
• the HIV/AIDS pandemic
• poor housing in inner cities and homelessness
• the breakdown of TB control programmes.

Transmission of TB

• When TB is confirmed in a patient, they will be isolated while they are in the most infectious stage.
• The treatment involves using several drugs to ensure that all the bacteria are killed.
• if not killed the drug-resistance forms remain to continue the infection.
• the treatment is a long one between 6 months or longer because it takes a long time to kill the bacteria, which are slow growing and are not very sensitive to drugs used.

Treatment of TB