Understanding Tuberculosis: Causes, Treatment & Prevention Methods
Introduction: What Is Tuberculosis and What Are the Symptoms?
The illness known as tuberculosis (TB) is brought on by microbes that travel from person to person through the air. Although TB often affects the lungs, it can also harm other organs like the brain, kidneys, or spine. If a person with TB does not receive treatment, they risk dying.
Symptoms
- Coughing
- Chest pain
- Weight loss
- Fever
- Night Sweats
- Weakness
- Coughing with blood
What Kinds of Tuberculosis Are There?
Active Tuberculosis
Active TB is a condition where the TB germs are spreading quickly throughout the body and infecting several organs. Coughing, chest pain, phlegm, weight loss, weakness, chills, fever and night sweats are a few of the common symptoms of active TB. A person with active pulmonary TB disease may transmit the disease to others by coughed-up infected particles that travel through the air.
Be ready to offer a thorough, in-depth history of every person you have had contact with if you are told you have an active TB condition. These folks must also be checked because the active form may be communicable.
Active TB illness is treated with a multi-drug regimen. You could be required to take your antibiotics under the guidance of your doctor or another healthcare provider, depending on state or local public health laws. This “directly observed Therapy” method is intended to prevent abandonment or inconsistent treatment, which could lead to “failure” with a sustained risk of transmission or developed resistance of the bacteria to the drugs, including the infamous multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
Miliary Tuberculosis
When TB germs enter the bloodstream, a rare form of active disease known as miliary TB develops. In this state, the bacteria rapidly invade every organ at once and produce microscopic nodules that spread throughout the body. This type of TB has a quick death rate.
Latent Tuberculosis
Many people who are afflicted with tuberculosis do not show any signs or symptoms of the disease. They do not exhibit any symptoms, and it is possible that their chest x-ray is normal. It is possible that the only sign of this contact will be a positive reaction on a tuberculin skin test (TST) or an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). However, there is always a chance that the dormant infection will become an active disease at some point in the future. Other conditions or treatments that weaken the immune system, such as HIV or certain medications, raise the risk significantly. The United States of America uses a practice known as preventive therapy or treatment of latent tuberculosis infection in order to defend itself against this.
How is tuberculosis spread?
When a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat sneezes,coughs, sings or speaks, TB germs are released into the air. Depending on the environment, these viruses might linger in the air for a number of hours. Latent TB infection is a condition that can affect people who breathe in air contaminated with these TB germs.
Tuberculosis: How Is It Diagnosed and Treated?
TB Skin test
The tuberculosis test is also called the tuberculin skin test (TST) or the Mantoux tuberculin skin test. The tuberculosis skin test involves two separate appointments with a medical professional.
At the first appointment, the health care practitioner will administer the test, and at the second appointment, they will read the results.
In order to do the tuberculosis skin test, a small amount of a fluid known as tuberculin is injected into the skin located on the lower portion of the arm.
A tuberculin skin test recipient has to come back in between 48 and 72 hours to have a professional health care worker examine their arm to see whether there is a reaction to the tuberculin.
The outcome is dependent on the size of the elevated, hard area or the edema that was there.
TB Blood test
Blood tests for tuberculosis are commonly known as IGRAs, or interferon-gamma release assays. The United States has approved two TB blood tests. Food and Drug And Administration (FDA)
A patient’s blood will be drawn by a medical professional and then sent to a laboratory for examination and results to be compiled.
Positive Tuberculosis Blood Test If a person receives a positive TB blood test, it indicates that they have been infected with the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. It is necessary to conduct more tests in order to ascertain whether the individual has TB disease or TB infection.
Negative Tuberculosis Blood Test If a person’s tuberculosis blood test comes back negative, it indicates that their blood did not react to the test, indicating that they do not have latent tuberculosis infection or tuberculosis sickness.
Treatment
- Rifampicin
- Isoniazid
- Ethambutol
- Pyrazinamide
- Streptomycin
- Linezolid
- Bedaquiline