Tuberculosis

At one time in history tuberculosis was one of the main causes of death in the United States. It kills nearly two billion people a year, between 2000 and 2020 one million people will be infected and 35 billion people will have died from TB.

Tuberculosis (TB) - TB is a bacterium (Mycobacterium Tuberculosis) that becomes active in the immune system and cannot be stopped. Mycobacterium Tuberculosis can attack any part of the body; however, it usually attacks the lungs. Once it attacks the lungs it becomes very contagious. A person with TB in their lungs anything from a cough or a sneeze or general breathing will spread the TB to any nearby people. When someone catches TB in another part of the body such as the kidney or spine TB becomes likely to not be infectious. Other than catching TB through the air (breathing it in) you can catch it through open wounds in the body.

English: Photomicrograph of a sputum sample contai...

Tuberculosis Hospital (demolished)

None - This image is in the public domain and thus...

TB has also been found in people who have gotten tattoos or who have been circumcised with un-sterilized instruments.

Latent Tuberculosis- People who are infected with latent tuberculosis do not have symptoms nor can they spread TB. However they can catch TB in the future and are likely to. People who have Latent Tuberculosis can take medicine to prevent tuberculosis in the future.

Symptoms of TB- The symptoms of TB include, a bad cough that lasts longer than two weeks, pain in the chest, coughing up blood, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever, and sweating in their sleep.

Diagnosis of TB- There is two separate methods of testing for TB. Skin testing is a screening for exposure of TB, a person with TB becomes hypersensitive to the TB bacteria even if they did not develop the disease. The...