What is tuberculosis and what are its symptoms?

Overview

Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are transmitted from one person to another through droplets expelled into the air through coughing and sneezing.

Once rare in developing countries, TB infections began to increase in 1985, due in part to the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV causes a person's immune system to weaken, making it unable to resist germs. In the United States, due to aggressive control programs, the incidence of TB began to decline again in 1993. But it remains a concern.

Many strains of TB are resistant to the drugs most commonly used to treat the disease. People with active TB must take several types of medications for months to eliminate the infection and prevent further antibiotic resistance.

Symptoms
Although your body may be harboring the bacteria that cause TB, your immune system can usually protect you from getting the disease. For this reason, doctors distinguish between the following two types:

Tuberculosis tuberculosis. This is a condition in which you have a tuberculosis infection, but the bacteria in your body are inactive and do not cause any symptoms. Latent TB disease, also called inactive TB disease or TB infection, is not contagious. Latent TB can turn into active TB, which is why it is important to treat it.
Tuberculosis tuberculosis. This condition, also called tuberculosis, often causes illness and can spread to others. This type of infection can occur weeks or even years after infection with tuberculosis bacteria.

Signs and symptoms of tuberculosis include:

Cough for three or four weeks
Cough accompanied by blood or mucus
Chest pain, or pain while breathing or coughing
Unintended weight loss
Exhaustion
fever
Night sweats
Goosebumps
Anorexia
Tuberculosis can also infect other parts of the body, such as the kidneys, spine, or brain. When tuberculosis occurs outside the lungs, signs and symptoms vary depending on which organ is affected. For example, tuberculosis of the spine may cause back pain, while tuberculosis of the kidneys may cause blood in the urine.

the reasons
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that are transmitted from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air. This can happen when exposed to the coughing, talking, sneezing, spitting, laughing or singing of a person with the active form of tuberculosis who has not been treated for it.

Although TB ​​is contagious, it is not easy to catch. You are more likely to catch it from someone you live or work with than you are to catch it from strangers. Most people with active TB disease who have received adequate drug therapy for at least two weeks are not contagious.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis
Tuberculosis remains a major cause of death due to the increase in drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Over time, tuberculosis germs gained the ability to survive despite medications. This is partly because people do not take their medications as instructed, or do not complete the course of treatment.

Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis appear when an antibiotic fails to kill all the bacteria it targets. The bacteria that survive become resistant to this drug, and often to other types of antibiotics as well. Some types of tuberculosis bacteria have become resistant to the most commonly used treatments, such as isoniazid and rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane).

Some strains of TB have also developed resistance to drugs less commonly used to treat TB, such as antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones, and injectable medications including amikacin and capreomycin (Capastat). These medications are used to treat infections that do not respond to commonly used medications.