Sunday, November 28, 2010

Can you get tuberculosis more than once

Can you get tuberculosis more than once?
In June 2004 I was diagnosed with TB. I was incarcerated at the time and was put on medication. I finished the treatment after I was released under the care of the TB clinic in town. They told me I was finished and that was it. A couple of months ago I got a chronic cough that comes and goes. Is it possible it came back or could it be damage done from before?
Infectious Diseases - 3 Answers
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1 :
Recurrence of the tuberculosis is always possible. It could be the result of reactivation of your previous infection or a new infection. There's also a chance that this is some other bacterial infiction or even an allergy. Important in this context is to know if you had completed the prescribed duration of treatment - 6 or 8 months depending on the case . Moreover, did your sputum sample test negative at the end of treatment ? What I would advice is that you go to a physician. He'll probably check your lymph nodes - if they're swollen- get a chest x-ray done(to see if there exists some active lesion).He should also empirically begin treatment with some antibiotic like amoxicillin .The treatment needs to be taken for 10 days in cases of swollen lymph nodes. If at the end of the treatment, the nodes still persist then get them tested by needle aspiration (FNAC) - this will give some conclusive report of the cause ; further treatment would be guided by its findings.
2 :
yes you can get it more than once and yes it can reappear after a while if it has not been completely eradicated by your previous treatment.
3 :
If you took your medications correctly it should not come back. You should also be teated for HIV because they are a common pair

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Wednesday, November 24, 2010

How does TB (tuberculosis) work exactly

How does TB (tuberculosis) work exactly?
So I know TB is a bacteria that goes into your lungs and then blood and stuff gets in there. But, my question is how exactly? Like cancer cells multiply and take over the normal red blood cells right? So what does TB do? Does it kill normal cells too? And how does the blood and and phlem get there? thanks in advance.
Biology - 2 Answers
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1 :
TB is an aerobic bacillus that is slow growing. It contains a cell wall rich in mycolic acid. Because it is slow growing, it is also difficult to kill. And the mycolic acid makes it difficult for macrophages to eat it and destroy it, So usually, the immune system tries to wall it off. This will cause the infection to become isolated and will continue to grow. TB can affect the lungs, the brain, the lymphatic system, GI tract, genito-urinary system, bones, joints, skin, and the circulatory system. TB is recognized and attacked by the immune system, do if someone's immune system is compomised, TB will spread that much faster. TB will cause the immune system to produce many factors to try and kill the bacteria which will inadvertently kill normal cells, produce phlegm and mucus and will interfere with the proper working o certain organs. The blood appears in sputum because the damage caused by macrophages and other immune cells do not kill the bacteria and spills over to destroy normal tissue eventually causing erosion of blood vessels.
2 :
Aight. So Tb enters the lung right. Now within the lung there are specialised immune cells called aleveolar macrophages(AM). Now Tb contains mycolic acid which stops the Tb from being degraded. While most bad stuff is destroyed by AM, Tb actually lives quite happily inside AM. Inside the AM, the Tb muliply and when there's heaps of Tb, the AM cell is lysed and dies. So now you got heaps of Tb. This attracts more macrophages. The Tb then evades the macrophages, multiples within the macrophages, and lyses the macrophages when it's done. Eventually you get what's called a ganuloma, which is a collection of dead cells and other stuff. First you have a primary granuloma. Then infected macrophages move off to other sites and form secondary granulomas. Also don't forget immune cells contain all sorts of nasty chemicals like ROS(reactive oxygen species) and RNS(reactive nitrogen species). Don't let the term species confuse you, it's not really species, it's chemicals, but their called reactive oxygen species for some reason. And its pretty serious, we're talking peroxide. The chemical released by the immune cells damage the lung cells

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Saturday, November 20, 2010

25 cases of tuberculosis have been reported in the past year and a patient care evaluation study

25 cases of tuberculosis have been reported in the past year and a patient care evaluation study.?
What is the data represented? A population? or a Sample? What kind of data is this? is it a population? or a sample?
Medicine - 1 Answers
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1 :
what is your question ,please be more specific ,thank

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