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Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, [7] is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. [1] Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs , but it can also affect other parts of the body. [ 1 ]
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch , M. tuberculosis has an unusual, waxy coating on its cell surface primarily due to the presence of mycolic acid .
Treatment of active TB disease is typically a combination of antibiotics, which results in patients being non-infectious to others usually within a few weeks. Until that point, though, patients can spread TB to others and it’s typically adults with reactivated TB that are the most infectious.
Cases of tuberculosis have cropped up at schools in different parts of the country. Here's what parents need to know about the infectious disease.
Tuberculosis, which is caused by bacteria that attack the lungs or other parts of the body, can spread through the air when a person with an active case coughs, sneezes or speaks.
It is usually assumed by most medical practitioners in the early stages of a diagnosis that a case of latent tuberculosis is the normal or regular strain of tuberculosis. It will therefore be most commonly treated with Isoniazid (the most used treatment for latent tuberculosis.) Only if the tuberculosis bacteria does not respond to the ...
An infectious disease agent can be transmitted in two ways: as horizontal disease agent transmission from one individual to another in the same generation (peers in the same age group) [3] by either direct contact (licking, touching, biting), or indirect contact through air – cough or sneeze (vectors or fomites that allow the transmission of the agent causing the disease without physical ...
It has been suggested that airborne transmission should be classified as being either obligate, preferential, or opportunistic, although there is limited research that show the importance of each of these categories. [23] Obligate airborne infections spread only through aerosols; the most common example of this category is tuberculosis.