For this week’s blog, I will discuss tuberculosis and share some interesting facts I learned while researching the topic! Tuberculosis was very common not too long ago due to the increase in sanitation and education in the recent years. Tuberculosis is a very big issue in underdeveloped countries due to the fact that they are the ones that usually suffer the most from unsanitary living standards.
Using our class’ textbook, tuberculosis (“TB”) is an infection of the lower respiratory tract by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is commonly referred to as tubercle bacillus. The infection is spread through the inhalation of tiny droplets containing M. tuberculosis. TB can be distinguished into 2 categories: Latent TB and Active TB. Latent TB is what comes first and is followed by active TB. Latent TB is also called latent tuberculosis infection.
Latent TB and Active TB – Symptoms
In this category, the person is left healthy. They are experiencing no symptoms (asymptomatic) and cannot shred the bacteria. This is due to the body’s immune system fighting the infection. An interesting fact I learned from this research article was that the majority of people (90%) infected by the bacteria do not develop the disease. However, if you are already immunocompromised, you may get active TB immediately after being infected.
Latent TB become active TB (also called tuberculosis diseases) later in life of that healthy individual who caught the latent tuberculosis infection. The symptoms for this now disease is persistent coughing, weight loss, fever, sweat and red sputum.
According to Mayo Clinic, the coughing can persist for up to three week or more. Furthermore, TB can affect different parts of the body- “including the kidneys, spine or brain.” In these cases, the signs and symptoms will depend on the organ that is infected.
Tuberculosis Quick Facts
Did you know that TB is recognized as the world’s most infectious disease killer. In 2019, 1.4 million people died from TB and “more than 10 million become ill with active TB disease each yet”. Wow! That is crazy statistics, it makes me wonder how much of that number is reported by the US and by other developing countries.
As expected, there are still a lot of cases in the US. However, they are not as much as smaller countries. In fact, in the US there are up to 13 million with latent infection. That means that 13 million are at risk of developing TB disease.
Lastly, did you know that there is a day for tuberculosis? March 24th is the World TB Day to celebrate Dr. Robert Koch’s discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. It is a day that raises awareness to TB and provides an opportunity for organizations to educate people about the disease.
Lyn 4 Science 