Tuberculosis is a disease, which was known for mankind since ancient times. There are often suffering symptoms of tuberculosis in Egyptian mummies. Information about it is remained in the Indian Vedas, the ancient Babylonian clay tablets in the Greek manuscripts. Even Hippocrates knew how dangerous tuberculosis disease of the lungs is. In the eighteenth century every seventh inhabitant of Europe died because of tuberculosis.
Infectiousness of tuberculosis has been already known for a long period of time. German scientist Robert Koch, bacteriologist was the first one 1882 to discover mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882. This is the microbe that under a microscope looks like a short, slightly curved stick with length of 2 - 5 microns and a width of 0.2 - 0.5 micron.
Microbe, discovered by Koch is the causative agent of tuberculosis and it was previously called the tubercle bacillus, or Koch bacillus. Now these bacteria are called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
It is worth to know that the most dangerous for other people are patients with progressive disease, presence of chronic lung cavities process and release of a significant amount of tuberculosis mycobacterium from sputum and tiny spray of saliva when coughing, sneezing or even during speaking. Patients with so-called closed form of tuberculosis are less dangerous if talking about infection other people, even though they can release mycobacteria during exacerbation. You can also become infected with tuberculosis through things or objects contaminated with sputum, saliva, containing Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The source of infection sometimes can be sick with tuberculosis cattle, mainly cows. Infection can occur after consumption of raw milk, dairy products and meat that has not undergone sufficient thermal treatment. However, scientists noticed that hurt pets (dogs, cats, etc.) and poultry can be infected with tuberculosis as well. In some cases the sick animals and poultry can be a source of human infection.
This infection is especially dangerous for children and adolescents because they are very susceptible to various infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. The emergence of tuberculosis is largely dependent on the ability of the human body to defend, the so-called immunity. If immunity is sufficient, there are chances that disease would not develop because of the various physiological mechanisms of mycobacteria that penetrated the body, cease to proliferate, and some of them are going out of the body. Of course, the resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis decreases under certain conditions, such as in case of malnutrition, fatigue, constant stress, difficult living and working conditions, the occurrence of various diseases (influenza, diabetes, pneumonia and others.)
Tuberculosis is a social disease that affects primarily the poorest part of the population living in adverse social conditions. Malnutrition, physical exhaustion, housing need, lack of hygienic conditions, economic hardship, sanitary illiteracy of the population, lack of skilled medical care contribute to the spread of TB epidemic.
Approximately 10 million of people in the world are infected with tuberculosis every year, while 3 million of people die because of this. Thus, we can count that about 8 thousand of people die because of tuberculosis per day. This is more than because of AIDS, malaria, influenza and other infections altogether! Among the causes of death of tuberculosis occupies the 10th place and first among infectious diseases. According to WHO, tuberculosis has become "the first killer of young women" because over 900 million women are infected with it worldwide. Moreover, about 1 million of them die every year and mostly in childbearing age ("Global Tuberculosis Report 2015").
There is a quite big "reservoir of infection" in nature, resulting in significant spread of tuberculosis, but the greatest danger is the one person, infected with tuberculosis. According to World Health Organization, the body of every third inhabitant of our planet is already tubercle bacillus, so they are TB-infected ("Global Tuberculosis Report 2015"). The main pathways of mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans or animals include aerogenic or inhaled, respiratory, or pollen, nutritional, and prenatal contact.
In case of aerogenic infection mycobacterium gets into the airways with droplets of mucus, phlegm or dust. The possibility of infection increases with prolonged constant communication with patients with open tuberculosis. According to diagnosis tuberculosis is simple to chronic pneumonia. Tuberculosis patients are anaemic, chest is almost always narrow, sunken, breathing movements are weakened. Patients often feel chest pain, coughing, highlighting initially dense, vitreous, and subsequently more liquid mucus. Sputum often contains blood veins and there might be haemoptysis, however it is not typical for children. In case of extensive process in sputum decay products of lung tissue are detected.
General symptoms dominate in case of primary tuberculosis, while secondary tuberculosis is caused by re-infection (acute primary lesions in the lungs, pleura, lymph nodes, at least - in other organs) and exogenous superinfection (secondary penetration into the organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis). In case of secondary form infection is caused mainly in bronchogenic and lymphogenous ways, but in very rarely occasions it can also be spread in haematogenous route. It can manifest as focal, infiltrative and disseminated tuberculosis.
The main method of diagnosis an open form of tuberculosis is bacterioscopic method. Doctors also conduct Manteaux test and X-ray studies. World Healthy Organization is against using fluorography research method for initial detection of tuberculosis, as they consider it as not efficient ("Global Tuberculosis Report 2015").
Works Cited
"Global Tuberculosis Report 2015". World Health Organization. N.p., 2016. Web. 1 May 2016.
