Tuberculosis - why does tuberculosis cause the symptoms it does, eg coughing, fever, sweating, loss of weight.
shortness of breath and tiredness.
Infectious Diseases - 3 Answers
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1 :
It is called being sick. Tuberculosis affects the lungs and totally drains you of all energy. Tuberculosis is a contagious infection caused by an airborne bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, although it can attack almost any organ in the body. Other mycobacteria (such as Mycobacterium bovis or Mycobacterium africanum) occasionally can cause a similar disease. Tuberculosis has been a serious public health problem for a long time. In the 1800s, the disease was responsible for more than 30% of all deaths in Europe. With the advent of antituberculosis antibiotics in the 1940s, the battle against tuberculosis seemed to be won. Unfortunately—because of factors such as inadequate public health resources, reduced immune response due to AIDS, the development of drug resistance, and extreme poverty in many parts of the world—tuberculosis continues to be a deadly disease. Worldwide, there are 8 million new cases of symptomatic tuberculosis and 3 million deaths from the disease every year. It is believed that one third of all the people in the world have a dormant (latent) tuberculosis infection, although only about 5 to 10% progress to active tuberculosis disease.
2 :
Because it destroys tissue in the lungs...
3 :
Symptoms of Tuberculosis Only about 10 percent of those infected with TB develop the disease. The first symptoms of an active case of TB may be so commonplace that they are often dismissed as the effects of a cold or flu. The individual may get tired easily, feel slightly feverish or cough frequently. It usually goes away by itself, but about in about half the cases, it will return. For people who have the disease, TB can cause lung or pleural (the lining of the lung) disease or it may spread through the body via the blood. Often people do not seek the advice of a doctor until they have pronounced symptoms, such as pleurisy (a sharp pain in the chest when breathing deeply or coughing) or the spitting up of blood. Neither of these symptoms is solely of tuberculosis, but they should not be ignored. Other symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss and night sweats. About 15 percent of people with the disease develop TB in an organ other than the lung, such as the lymph nodes, GI tract, and bones and joints. Diagnosis of Tuberculosis If a person has a significant reaction upon being tuberculin skin-tested for the first time, additional laboratory and x-ray examinations are necessary to determine if the individual has active TB. Tuberculosis can mimic other diseases, such as pneumonia, lung abscesses, tumors and fungal infections, or occur along with them. For a proper diagnosis, therefore, a doctor will rely on symptoms and other physical signs; a person's history of exposure to TB and x-rays that may show evidence of TB infection (usually in the form of lesions or cavities in the lungs). TB bacilli grown in cultures of sputum or other specimens provide a positive diagnosis
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