Thursday, October 16, 2008

What is the difference between pneumonia and tuberculosis


What is the difference between pneumonia and tuberculosis?
Aren't both diseases of the lungs? What's the main difference between them? Please also include similarities.
Respiratory Diseases - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
tuberculoses is a disease and pnuemonia is to do with the body trying to keep warm
2 :
Symptoms of pneumonia If you develop pneumonia you may have: a cough - dry at first but which becomes a cough with phlegm that is often green/yellow or rust-coloured and may be smelly fever breathlessness or faster breathing pain in your chest night sweats confusion Not everyone gets all these symptoms and you may have some that aren't in this list. For example, if you are over 65, you may be more likely to have confusion or be unsteady on your legs. 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 abnormalities that may be seen on a chest X-ray. ◦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 the 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 the 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. Symptoms include ◦common cough with a progressive increase in production of mucus and ◦coughing up blood. ◦Other symptoms include the following: ■fever, ■loss of appetite, ■weight loss, and ■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, and ◦the lining covering the outside of the gastrointestinal trac
3 :
Pneumonia can be bacterial or viral. The signs and symptoms of this infection is shortness of breath, cough, green to yellow mucous coughed up, fever, rattling sound in the lungs, difficulty laying flat, nausea and if sever you would have to be hospitalized. Bacterial pneumonia can be cured by antibiotic. Viral you just have to ride out. You can catch pneumonia by breathing it in from someone who has coughed or sneezed around you. Tuberculosis is a disease that is very contagious. It is airborne and is caught by breathing it in from the air from someone who has the disease and sneezed or coughed in the air. It mostly attacks the lungs, causes difficulty breathing, coughing, shortness of breath, fever, nausea and it is a bacteria that develops growths on the lungs. It can also grow in the stomach, liver, kidneys and other organs but is very rare. You have to be put in the hospital on isolation and given a regime of drugs to defeat the disease. Anyone that has come in contact with someone who has it also needs to be treated. There is a test that can be done to see if you have active TB. You can also spit up discolored mucous and sometimes it contains blood. Hope you don't have these and if you think you do, get to your doctor but make sure you where a mask or cover your nose and mouth with something to be courteous to those around you. God Bless




 Read more discussions :