Reason For topic: I never knew anyone personally of this condition but always heard about it. It made me curious of what this condition was actually was and what it does. I am interested into finding out about more of this condition and its history. Table of Contents Definition and History of Tuberculosis….. pg. 3 Signs and Symptoms. pg. 5 Definition and History of Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (MTB) or (TB) is a infectious disease caused from strain of mycobacteria called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
As stated on an article from the Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention that tuberculosis is a common and lethal disease commonly attacking the lungs and also other parts of the body. It can be spread throughout the air from a cough or sneeze of an infected person or through respiration fluids through the air. It has been evidence that the disease originated 17,000 years ago in bovines, but then transferred to humans. Scientist discovers skeletons from Egyptian mummies dated from 3000-2400 B. C. with tubercular decay in the spines.
Hippocrates from 460 B. C. identified the consumption of the most widespread disease during the time. It is said that the disease caused a fatal fever and coughing up blood. From the genetics of Americans TB was present in the year 100 AD. In 1689, Dr. Richard Morton established tubercles as pathology because of its different symptoms. It wasn’t named as a disease until the 1820’s and named tuberculosis in 1859 by J. L. Schonlein. In 1838-1845, the owner of the Mammoth Cave brought numerous of people with the disease to try to cure the disease with constant temperature and purity of cave air, but failed causing all patients to die within a year of getting infected.
On March 24, 1882, Robert Koch identified the bacillus that caused tuberculosis to be Mycobacterium tuberculosis and soon to win a Nobel Prize in 1905, in physiology and medicine for the discovery. Koch soon before came up with a remedy for tuberculosis in 1990, called tuberculin. It was from a extracted glycerine from the tubercle bacilli but the remedy was ineffective then soon used for a screening test for the pre-symptoms of tuberculosis. The first success in achieving the immunization for tuberculosis was found in 1906, by Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin.
It was called Bacillus of Calmette and Guerin (BCG), made from the attenuated bovine stain tuberculosis. It was first used in 1921, in France but soon spread to other countries USA, Great Britain, and Germany after World War II. In the 19th and early 20th century tuberculosis was the public’s biggest concern to the urban poor people. After the disease was considered contagious by respiring fluids in the air in the 1880s, the British campaign for people to stop spitting in public places and the poor was encouraged to enter sanatoria where excellent care and medical attention was giving.
In Europe, tuberculosis reached its peak when it was the cause of 25% of the deaths in the European population in the 1800s, but declined 90% in the 1950s. An antibiotic was made in 1946 that made an effective cure and treatment for tuberculosis. The antibiotic became a new hope to eliminate tuberculosis throughout the population across the globe. The only treatment besides sanatoria is a pneumothorax surgical technique, collapsing an infected lung so the lung will be allowed to heal.
MDR-TB is a surgical option generally accepted for treating the disease, it involves removing the chest cavity in the lungs to reduce the bacteria and increase the effects of the antibiotic therapy. Signs and Symptoms Any part of the body may be infected by Tuberculosis, but the lungs are most commonly affected than any other organ, which is known as Pulmonary TB. The other type of TB is called the Extrapulmonary and it occurs in any part of the body except of the lungs. The signs and symptoms generally are weight loss, fever, night sweats, chills, fatigue, and dry cough.