Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. It is a serious condition but can be cured with proper treatment. TB mainly affects the lungs. However, it can affect any part of the body, including the bones and nervous system. Typical symptoms of TB include: having a persistent cough for more than three weeks that brings up phlegm, which may be bloody weight loss night sweats high temperature (fever) tiredness and fatigue loss of appetite.
You should see a GP if you have a cough that lasts more than three weeks or if you cough up blood. What causes tuberculosis? TB is caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB that affects the lungs is the only form of the condition that is contagious and usually only spreads after prolonged exposure to someone with the illness. For example, TB often spreads within a family who live in the same house. In most healthy people, the immune system (the body’s natural defence against infection and illness) kills the bacteria and you have no further symptoms.
However, sometimes the immune system cannot kill the bacteria, but manages to prevent it from spreading in the body. This means you will not have any symptoms, but the bacteria will remain in your body. This is known as latent TB. If the immune system fails to kill or contain the infection, it can spread to the lungs or other parts of the body and symptoms will develop within a few weeks or months. This is known as active TB. Latent TB could develop into an active TB infection at a later date, particularly if your immune system becomes.
How is tuberculosis treated? With treatment, a TB infection can usually be cured. Most people will need a course of antibiotics, usually for six months. Several different antibiotics are used. This is because some forms of TB are resistant to certain antibiotics. If you are infected with a drug-resistant form of TB, treatment can last as long as 18 months. If you are in close contact with someone who has TB, tests may be carried out to see if you are also infected. These can include a chest X-Ray, blood tests and a skin test called the Mantoux test.
Vaccination The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine can provide effective protection against TB in up to eight out of 10 people who are given it. Currently, BCG vaccinations are only recommended for groups of people who are at a higher risk of developing TB. This includes children living in areas with high rates of TB or those who have close family members from countries with high TB rates. It is also recommended that some people, such as healthcare workers, are vaccinated due to the increased risk of contracting TB while working. How common is TB?
Before antibiotics were introduced, TB was a major health problem in the UK. Nowadays, the condition is much less common. However, in the last 20 years TB cases have gradually increased, particularly among ethnic minority communities who are originally from places where TB is more common. In 2011, 8,963 cases of TB were reported in the UK. Of these, more than 6,000 of these cases affected people who were born outside the UK. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is infected with latent TB. Of these, about 10% will become active at some point.
Protect your family and friends If you have active TB, keep your germs to yourself. It generally takes a few weeks of treatment with TB medications before you’re not contagious anymore. Follow these tips to help keep your friends and family from getting sick: Stay home. Don’t go to work or school or sleep in a room with other people during the first few weeks of treatment for active tuberculosis. Ventilate the room. Tuberculosis germs spread more easily in small closed spaces where air doesn’t move. If it’s not too cold outdoors, open the windows and use a fan to blow indoor air outside.
Cover your mouth. Use a tissue to cover your mouth anytime you laugh, sneeze or cough. Put the dirty tissue in a bag, seal it and throw it away. Wear a mask. Wearing a surgical mask when you’re around other people during the first three weeks of treatment may help lessen the risk of transmission. Economic Impact of TB The development of new and improved TB treatments that reduce the global TB burden could help increase the productivity of entire regions and promote sustainable and self-determined economies, opening up new engines of innovation, trade, and industry.
The concept of health being a necessary precursor to wealth is as true for the world as a whole as it is for the individual. TB Impacts: The World TB will rob the world’s poorest countries of an estimated $1 to $3 trillion over the next 10 years. This will disproportionately impact developing countries, where 94 percent of TB cases and 98 percent of TB deaths occur. Particularly troubling for the prospects of global prosperity, 75 percent of TB cases arise during people’s most productive years, between the ages of 15 and 54.