[b][/b]Tuberculosis Causes

All cases of TB are passed from person to person via droplets. When someone with TB infection coughs, sneezes, or talks, tiny droplets of saliva or mucus are expelled into the air, which can be inhaled by another person.

•Once infectious particles reach the alveoli (small saclike structures in the air spaces in the lungs), another cell, called the macrophage, engulfs the TB bacteria.

◦Then the bacteria are transmitted to the lymphatic system and bloodstream and spread to other organs occurs.

◦The bacteria further multiply in organs that have high oxygen pressures, such as the upper lobes of the lungs, the kidneys, bone marrow, and meninges -- the membrane-like coverings of the brain and spinal cord.

•When the bacteria cause clinically detectable disease, you have TB.

•People who have inhaled the TB bacteria, but in whom the disease is controlled, are referred to as infected. Their immune system has walled off the organism in an inflammatory focus known as a granuloma. They have no symptoms, frequently have a positive skin test for TB, yet cannot transmit the disease to others. This is referred to as latent tuberculosis infection or LTBI.

•Risk factors for TB include the following:

◦HIV infection,

◦low socioeconomic status,

◦alcoholism,

◦homelessness,

◦crowded living conditions,

◦diseases that weaken the immune system,

◦migration from a country with a high number of cases,

◦and health-care workers.

[b][/b]Tuberculosis Symptoms

You may not notice any symptoms of illness until the disease is quite advanced. Even then the symptoms -- loss of weight, loss of energy, poor appetite, fever, a productive cough, and night sweats -- might easily be blamed on another disease.

•Only about 10% of people infected with M. tuberculosis ever develop tuberculosis disease. Many of those who suffer TB do so in the first few years following infection, but the bacillus may lie dormant in the body for decades.

•Although most initial infections have no symptoms and people overcome them, they may develop fever, dry cough, and abnormalities that may be seen on a chest X-ray.

◦This is called primary pulmonary tuberculosis.

◦Pulmonary tuberculosis frequently goes away by itself, but in 50%-60% of cases, the disease can return.

•Tuberculous pleuritis may occur in 10% of people who have the lung disease from tuberculosis.

◦The pleural disease occurs from the rupture of a diseased area into the pleural space, the space between the lung and the lining of the abdominal cavity.

◦These people have a nonproductive cough, chest pain, and fever. The disease may go away and then come back at a later date.

•In a minority of people with weakened immune systems, TB bacteria may spread through their blood to various parts of the body.

◦This is called miliary tuberculosis and produces fever, weakness, loss of appetite, and weight loss.

◦Cough and difficulty breathing are less common.

•Generally, return of dormant tuberculosis infection occurs in the upper lungs. Symptoms include

◦common cough with a progressive increase in production of mucus and

◦coughing up blood.

◦Other symptoms include the following:


■fever

■loss of appetite,

■weight loss, and

■night sweats.


•About 15% of people may develop tuberculosis in an organ other than their lungs. About 25% of these people usually had known TB with inadequate treatment. The most common sites include the following:

◦lymph nodes,

◦genitourinary tract,

◦bone and joint sites,

◦meninges, and

◦the lining covering the outside of the gastrointestinal tract.[b]Tuberculosis Causes

All cases of TB are passed from person to person via droplets. When someone with TB infection coughs, sneezes, or talks, tiny droplets of saliva or mucus are expelled into the air, which can be inhaled by another person.

•Once infectious particles reach the alveoli (small saclike structures in the air spaces in the lungs), another cell, called the macrophage, engulfs the TB bacteria.

◦Then the bacteria are transmitted to the lymphatic system and bloodstream and spread to other organs occurs.


◦The bacteria further multiply in organs that have high oxygen pressures, such as the upper lobes of the lungs, the kidneys, bone marrow, and meninges -- the membrane-like coverings of the brain and spinal cord.

•When the bacteria cause clinically detectable disease, you have TB.

•People who have inhaled the TB bacteria, but in whom the disease is controlled, are referred to as infected. Their immune system has walled off the organism in an inflammatory focus known as a granuloma. They have no symptoms, frequently have a positive skin test for TB, yet cannot transmit the disease to others. This is referred to as latent tuberculosis infection or LTBI.

•Risk factors for TB include the following:

◦HIV infection,

◦low socioeconomic status,

◦alcoholism,

◦homelessness,

◦crowded living conditions,

◦diseases that weaken the immune system,

◦migration from a country with a high number of cases,

◦and health-care workers.


[color=#990000][/color]For supplement to prevent and get rid of TB email to the address below.