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Transmission: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a chronic, infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that primarily attacks the lungs. It can exist in either an inactive, dormant state known as TB infection or an active state where the bacteria spreads throughout the body known as TB disease. The bacteria is transmitted through airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. While TB cases are on the rise globally, in the US in 2003 there were 14,874 reported cases with the highest rates in Washington D.C. and the lowest in Montana and Wyoming.

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52 views1 page

Transmission: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a chronic, infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that primarily attacks the lungs. It can exist in either an inactive, dormant state known as TB infection or an active state where the bacteria spreads throughout the body known as TB disease. The bacteria is transmitted through airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. While TB cases are on the rise globally, in the US in 2003 there were 14,874 reported cases with the highest rates in Washington D.C. and the lowest in Montana and Wyoming.

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Shetty264
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Tuberculosis Definition Tuberculosis is a chronic, infectious disease that primarily attacks the lungs.

Description Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacteria that primarily attacks the lungs. An individual may be "TB infected," meaning the bacteria are in the body but are in an inactive state, walled off behind scablike structures that are the body's defense mechanism, or have "TB disease," when the bacteria actively spread throughout the body and can cause damage to the lungs or other organs. The severity of the attack depends on whether the bacteria spread from the lungs to other parts of the body. TB infection in the blood, the meninges (membranes around the brain and spinal cord), or the kidneys are the most serious. Children between the ages of six and 24 months are the most susceptible to meningitis; it is the chief cause of tuberculin death among children.

Transmission

The bacteria that causes TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is transmitted by droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It is not spread through kissing or other physical contact. Children nearly always contract the disease from an infected adult. Demographics In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 14,874 cases of tuberculosis in the United States, or 5.1 cases per 100,000 population. The actual number of TB infections, however, is estimated to be much higher, as high as ten million. In 2002, there were 802 tuberculosis-related deaths. The District of Columbia had the highest rates of TB, with 14 cases per 100,000 people in 2003; Montana and Wyoming had the lowest rate, with 0.8 cases per 100,000 population. Children less than 15 years of age represented 6 percent of reported TB cases, and 15 24-year-olds represented 11 percent of all cases. Worldwide, TB cases are the rise, with nearly 8.8 million new cases a year being estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Causes and Symptoms Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a microscopic, rod-shaped bacterium. The majority of individuals who are infected with TB do not go on to have active disease. Active TB can be triggered when a person's immune system is weakened, such as from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), malnutrition, or alcohol abuse. Early symptoms of TB include unusual fatigue, fever, loss of weight, headache, coughing, and irritability. An infected child may have night sweats and cough up blood. In advanced stages, the patient will suffer persistent coughing, breathlessness, and fever. Many times TB is not diagnosed and becomes dormant; this is known as initial tuberculosis. In severe cases among young children between the ages of two and four, initial TB can be fatal. The disease can reoccur, or reactivate, during adolescence when resistance is low, and may disappear on its own or develop into serious lung disease.

When to Call the Doctor

Parents should contact their child's doctor if the child has been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with or is suspected to have tuberculosis, or if the child exhibits the symptoms of the disease, particularly persistent fever, night sweats, and cough. Diagnosis Tuberculosis is nearly always diagnosed by tuberculin skin tests, although one can also be diagnosed by chest x rays and analysis of sputum (matter from the respiratory tract) smears and cultures. The most common tuberculin skin test is the Mantoux test, which consists of injecting a small amount of protein from the TB bacillus into the forearm. A reddening and swelling of the area after 2472 hours signals the presence of TB. A negative result, however, may not necessarily exclude a diagnosis of TB. Treatment The disease is treated with a regimen of strong antibiotics such as Rifampin and Isoniazid for six months to two years. Because some strains of the disease are unusually drug-resistant, cultures are grown from the patient's bacteria and tested with a variety of drugs to determine the most effective

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