Friday, August 1, 2008

What are the symptoms of Tuberculosis


What are the symptoms of Tuberculosis?
What is the cause for Tuberculosis. How long after exposure can the doctor find out wether or not the patient is positive or negative? How the doctor will diagnos on a human generally. What are the symptoms and what causes Tuberculosis?
Respiratory Diseases - 3 Answers
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1 :
Tuberculosis Symptoms You may not notice any symptoms of illness until the disease is quite advanced. Even then the symptoms–loss of weight, loss of energy, poor appetite, fever, a productive cough, and night sweats–might easily be blamed on another disease. Only about 10% of people infected with M tuberculosis ever develop tuberculosis disease. Many of those who suffer TB do so in the first few years following infection, but the bacillus may lie dormant in the body for decades. Although most initial infections have no symptoms and people overcome them, they may develop fever, dry cough, and chest x-ray abnormalities. This is called primary pulmonary tuberculosis. Pulmonary tuberculosis frequently goes away by itself, but in 50-60% of cases the disease can return. Tuberculous pleuritis may occur in 10% of people who have the lung disease from tuberculosis. The pleural disease occurs from the rupture of a diseased area into the pleural space, the space between your lung and the lining of the abdominal cavity. These people have a nonproductive cough, chest pain, and fever. The disease may go away and then come back at a later date. In a minority of people with weakened immune systems, TB bacteria may spread through their blood to various parts of their body. This is called miliary tuberculosis and produces fever, weakness, loss of appetite, and weight loss. Cough and difficulty breathing are less common. Generally, return of dormant tuberculosis infection occurs in the upper lungs. Common cough with a progressive increase in production of mucus Coughing up blood Other symptoms include the following: Fever Loss of appetite Weight loss Night sweats About 15% of people may develop tuberculosis in an organ other than their lungs. About 25% of these people usually had known TB with inadequate treatment. The most common sites include the following: Lymph nodes Genitourinary tract Bone and joint sites Meninges The lining covering the outside of the gastrointestinal tract
2 :
WHAT IS TB? Tuberculosis (often called TB) is an infectious disease that usually attacks the lungs, but can attack almost any part of the body. Tuberculosis is spread from person to person through the air. When people with TB in their lungs or throat cough, laugh, sneeze, sing, or even talk, the germs that cause TB may be spread into the air. If another person breathes in these germs there is a chance that they will become infected with tuberculosis. Repeated contact is usually required for infection. It is important to understand that there is a difference between being infected with TB and having TB disease. Someone who is infected with TB has the TB germs, or bacteria, in their body. The body's defenses are protecting them from the germs and they are not sick. This is referred to as latent TBI. Someone with TB disease is sick and can spread the disease to other people. A person with TB disease needs to see a doctor as soon as possible. This is referred to as active TBII. It is not easy to become infected with tuberculosis. Usually a person has to be close to someone with TB disease for a long period of time. TB is usually spread between family members, close friends, and people who work or live together. TB is spread most easily in closed spaces over a long period of time. However, transmission in an airplane, although rare, has been documented. Even if someone becomes infected with tuberculosis, that does not mean they will get TB disease. Most people who become infected do not develop TB disease because their body's defenses protect them. Most active cases of TB disease result from activating old infection in people with impaired immune systems. Experts believe that about 10 million Americans are infected with TB germs. Only about 10 percent of these people will develop TB disease in their lifetime. The other 90 percent will never get sick from the TB germs or be able to spread them to other people.1 TB is an increasing and major world wide problem, especially in Africa where the spread has been facilitated by AIDS. It is estimated that nearly 1 billion people will become newly infected, over 150 million will become sick, and 36 million will die worldwide between now and 2020 -- if control is not further strengthened. Each year there are more than 9 million cases and close to 2 million deaths attributed to TB; 100,000 of those 2 million deaths occur among children.2 http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35778
3 :
coughing up blood, tight chest, headaches general body aching. the doctor would do an exray of your chest and find inflimation on your lungs, they can detectic quite early too



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