Saturday, November 1, 2008

How can someone contract tuberculosis and what does it do to that person

How can someone contract tuberculosis and what does it do to that person?
Why is it considered a 'lung disease'? Is it fatal in most cases?
Respiratory Diseases - 5 Answers
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1 :
http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35778
2 :
TB is cause when a person is infected by a bacteria known as mycobacteria, which commonly affects the lungs... though TB can infect other areas of the body such as the CNS (central Nervous System) or skin. If the disease goes untreated, it can be fatal. You usually contract it by being exposed to someone else who has TB. Since it infects the lungs, it can be spread through coughing. The disease is now growing more prominent in Africa as HIV becomes more widespread (HIV weakens the immune system causing individuals to become more succeptable to diseases such as TB).
3 :
TB is an "air-borne" disease. You can contract it just by simply sharing the same space with someone who has it. When TB is contracted, you will begin to cough up blood, experience night sweats, fatigue, weight loss, a chronic cough, loss of appetite, and fever. Anyone can get TB, but there are groups of pple that are more prone to it than others, usually those who have a threatening illness already- like HIV.
4 :
Having converted from negative to positive for TB, I found that walking through the residual droplets from someone who coughed or sneezed, and inhaling them was the easiest way to contract the disease. Since I was working with a large segment of recently immigrated Asians, this is probably what happened. There is a certain regimen, which you have to take, over a period of time, that will render the conversion harmless. TB, can attack any organ of the body, and is not confined to the lungs alone.
5 :
Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium and is communicated via sputum or in the droplets from a cough. My mother's father died of tuberculosis long ago before it was treatable with antibiotics, and his originated apparently in a hand wound. Since the advent of AIDS resistent strains of the bacteria have evolved

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