Tuberculosis is an infectious disease - Free Essay Example

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that is contagious to everyone. It was discovered in the year of 1882 when Doctor Robert Koch discovered it. It originates from a bacterium known as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. The cause of this specific disease is airborne, and it encounters the human body from daily activity such as sneezing, coughing, shaking hands, etc. this disease can be fatal if it is not treated in a timely manner. It can possibly deteriorate the organs on the inside of the body. It can be treated with medication through doctors orders. It is a contagious disease that is easy to catch and hard to get rid of. It takes six to nine months in time to shake this disease. This paper will go into further detail about the disease itself, how it affects the human body, the statistics over the past few years, the spread of the disease, prevention and the cure for the disease. There are ways to prevent this disease from affecting the human body and those around. This paper includes statistics about the disease, the groups it affects, the cause and more. Learning about this disease will help prevention and allow better care to the human body. Introduction Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is deemed serious because it affects the human lungs which are needed to survive. Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium named Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. It was discovered by Dr. Robert Koch in the year of 1882. How does this disease spread? This disease is spread through person to person communication and day to day activity. More detail about the spreading of this disease will be discussed later in this paper. Tuberculosis (TB) started its biggest spread in the year 1985. This is also partly due to the emergence of the HIV disease which turns into AIDS and can kill the human by shutting down the bodys immune systems. The bodys immune system is needed to fight TB so when HIV starts to affect the bodys immune system the immune system cannot fight the infectious disease. The only good thing about this disease is that it is curable and preventable which we will get into later. We will talk about the disease further in depth. Things s uch as the history and background of the disease, the different types of TB diseases, how it effects/attacks the human immune system, what causes this disease/how it is spread, how it can be prevented and how it can be cured. Background According to Dr. Michael Iseman on Tuberculosis: History, TB was rampant among Europeans including those who had immigrated to the US in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In 1865 Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by Jean-Antoine Villemin was discovered and the identification of the tubercle bacillus as the etiologic agent by Robert Koch in 1882. As stated previously, Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium named, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis which, also gives the disease itself the name tuberculosis (TB). TB most commonly affects the lungs which is a part of the immune system. TB can be spread and caught from common symptoms or can be detected through a TB skin test. Should this disease beat the immune system the human body will weaken and become ill. It is important that this disease is caught and treated. Otherwise, should the disease go untreated it has been known to affect 10-15 people every year. Those who are already infected with the HIV and TB diseases are much more likely to become ill due to the TB disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that all of about one third our worlds population is infected with Tuberculosis (TB). It also estimates that about 8.8 million new Tuberculosis cases and 1.6 million deaths from TB occurred in the world in 2005. There were 22 countries mainly being Africa and Asia where 80% of cases containing TB had an outbreak. According to Dr. Michael Iseman, (TB) may be regarded in two categories: active disease or latent infection. The most common form of active TB is lung disease, but it may invade other organs. Types of TB There are three types of TB. The three are known as Active TB, Military TB and Latent TB Infection. Active TB is an illness where the bacterias in the body are multiplying at high rates. While multiplying it is invading different organs of the body. Symptoms of this disease are things as common as coughing, weight loss, fever, chills and chest pain. It is important that if an individual is affected with this disease they will need to give a detailed history to medical providers of whom they have had contact with because this disease is contagious and those whom you have been in contact with may also want to be tested for their health. Military TB is a disease where TB bacteria find their way into the blood stream. This a form of TB that can be fatal. Latent TB does not seem as infectious as the rest. The only manifestation of this encounter may be reaction to the tuberculin skin test (TST) or interferon-gamma release assay. So, it can become much bigger than its start. It can escalat e to an active disease. These three diseases all start off as something small and then can become something bigger. Effects/Attacks of the human immune System Just as every other disease TB has Signs and Symptoms that occur as a sign of the disease. These signs and symptoms include: Fevers, Chills, Night Sweats, Cough, Loss of Appetite, Weight Loss, Blood present in Sputum and Loss of Energy. These symptoms may seem and start off as minor but nonetheless they can worrisome in the patient. Although for TB diseases symptoms do not always occur. Sometimes an individual may not show any symptoms and not realize that the TB disease is present in the body. This disease can affect other parts of the body such as kidneys, brain or spine. Although lungs are the most common, TB can occur in other organs and the body and the affect is dependent upon those specific organs. As the bacterias causing TB multiply in the body the immune system is being attacked and has to fight back. That is where treatment which we will get into later comes in because it will help the immune system fight off this disease. Cause/Spread of Tuberculosis (TB) Disease The cause of this disease comes from things we experience in our normal day to day lives. Such as sharing handshakes, hugs, kissing or any other forms of contact with those who are carrying the disease knowingly and unknowingly. This disease is also spread through coughing. A single cough without covering your mouth can last in the air for an hour and we all share the same air so as soon as the next individual walks in that spot they can become infected with TB. It is spread person to person. So, when some infected individual sneezes and fails to cover their mouth those germs are spread to those around. Failing to wash your hands also spreads the disease. The person that fails to wash their hands and touches things such as counter tops, door knobs, cell phones, laptops or anything else shared can spread the disease because the germs are spreading. Anytime the average human encounters another we can share this disease with one another. This disease can be airborne that is why it is im portant to watch your surroundings and the situations we all put ourselves in. this disease is known as one of the most common contagious diseases because of the way it is spread. This is an easy disease to catch because of the way it spreads itself. Prevention/Treatment According to Department of Health Tuberculosis can be prevented through early diagnosis and treatment. The earlier it is treated the earlier prevention of the deterioration of the inside of the body. It will also stop the spread of the disease. Washing your hands, cleaning household spaces that are touched daily more than one person, cleaning door knobs three times a day, covering your mouth or nose when you cough, or sneeze are all ways to prevent this disease from entering the body. Close examinations to household items and items in public also help in preventing TB. Another way to prevent TB is through living a healthy lifestyle. By living a healthy lifestyle youll exercise daily, balance your diet, use good personal hygiene, fresh air and indoor ventilation and getting the proper amount of rest and sleep. All newborn babies receive a vaccination to protect them all against tuberculosis. So how do we treat this disease once we have been exposed to it? Antibiotics are the answer to this disease. Doctors prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria and the antibiotics usually must be taken for all of six to nine months to be cured from the body in full. The medications you take will depend on how severe your TB is. There are times where antibiotics that are given to treat TB do not work. That is called a Drug- Resistant TB. Youll have to be prescribed a higher dosage of a different medication to fight the disease and the time period for this disease is also longer. The most common medications used to fight the TB after discovering it is drug-resistant that doctors prescribe are: Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Pyrazinamide and Rifampin. The best way to shake this disease is to get rest, take the medication prescribed and isolate yourself from the rest of the world so that you do not affect anyone else while carrying the sickness. While researching this topic I found that statistically the older you get the more prone to TB mostly all our bodies will become. Why is this? This is because when we are all younger our bodies work differently and can fight infectious and contagious diseases. However, the older we get the weaker our immune system becomes, and it is harder to fight infectious diseases. That made sense because I notice the older people die from infectious diseases than younger people and children. My mother was prone to this disease back in 1998. She caught this disease at the age of 21. I conducted an interview with her to hear about the disease from someone whom had caught TB. Below is our conversation. How did you know that you had TB? I knew I had TB when one day I noticed a cough that I could not get rid of. It was followed by chest pain, weight loss and sweating all the time. What did doctors say? Doctors told me I needed to rest stay away from my children and take the antibiotics prescribed to me. However, it was a drug resistant TB, I noticed my body getting weaker and I could barely care for myself, so I was admitted into the hospital where I stayed for close to two months isolated from just about everyone. I could not even see my own kids. She had a drug-resistant TB that made her weak and unable to do anything. It not only shut down her lungs but many other organs in the body as stated previously. She was close to death from that disease in 1998 as previous research stated it can be fatal. Statistics TB is known as one of the worlds deadliest diseases. According to Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) site, in 2017, the TB disease affected 10 million people around the world. One fourth of our world is infected with the TB disease. Those who are infected with the HIV disease are killed by the leading cause which is TB. CDC says, A total of 9,105 TB cases (a rate of 2.8 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2017. This is a decrease from the number of cases reported in 2016 and the lowest case count on record in the United States. The case rate of 2.8 per 100,000 persons is a 2.3% decrease from 2016. Ending TB requires maintaining and strengthening current TB control priorities while increasing efforts to identify and treat latent TB infection among high-risk populations. This disease spreads and affects each person introduced to it. Half of these cases probably are from those who have been infected by a person they see daily such as parents, children, teachers, peers, co-workers and other people that we communicate and share space with on a daily. Some people are infected with TB and do not even realize it because the symptoms are normal for a cold, something that can be cured with a prescription from the doctor. According to CDC reports TB rates at their highest were reported from New York, California, Florida and Texas. However, those were just the states where the rates were at an all-time high it did in fact affect all 50 states. The most recent data we have to refer to are states that there were 528 deaths that occurred in the United States where TB was the cause. This data is from the year of 2016. TB kills us all as a whole however, it also kills populations. By populations, the race plays a big part in this too. In 2017, TB was reported in 28 .2% of Hispanics, 1.2% of Hawaiians, 11.8% of whites, 21% of African Americans and 35.7% of Asians. Conclusion To conclude, it was learned that Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is the cause of this disease that can kill the average human. the discussion of this topic has included the TB disease, how it affects the body, the resistance of the disease, the death rate and other statistics, prevention and treatment and the cause. The disease is still as effective as it was in the late 18th and early 19th century. However, we have a better hold on it through medicine and we are still working on cures to treat this disease. TB is a serious and fatal disease to attract. This disease is most common in the lungs but can and will affect all other parts of the body such as kidneys, brain, and much more. The key is to catch it early if it is attracted. How do we catch it early on? We can catch this disease early by noticing our signs and symptoms and not overlooking them thinking they are smaller and minor than they appear to be. Coughs and sneezes are normal for the human body. A cough can occur from somethin g passing through the wrong tube when we swallow, choking, etc. As a sneeze can occur from fumes. We must notice the times where we get chills and a small fever and go to the doctors to immediately be checked out for the worse. Prepare for the worse but pray for the best. Catching something early on before it causes damage to the body is the best cure. Especially for TB because this disease will destroy our organs not just our lungs. Vaccinations are a high priority in the society we live in because they help our bodies get a dosage of what to expect so that the body can know how to fight different bacteria to help us survive. As stated previously, babies are the most at risk for this disease because their immune systems are weak and not where they should be. Usually when a baby catches a disease the parents do too because they are around the baby providing care around the clock. Therefore, vaccinations are a must to fight against diseases that are there to destroy the human immune system and other working systems. The biggest idea to take away from this disease is the prevention and treatment. Prevent the disease from affecting the body. How do we prevent the disease from affecting the human immune system and body? It is best that everyone washes their hands after using the restroom, before preparing or eating food and after sneezing or coughing into the hands. It is important to cover the mouth while yawning, sneezing or coughing. A single cough lasts an hour in the air we breathe. Wiping down door knobs, counter tops, coffee tables, remotes, home offices etc. is important because those are daily things shared by more than 1-2 people. Exercising and taking daily vitamins will also help the body prevent diseases such as Tuberculosis from affecting the immune system. Good personal hygiene is another thing that will help the body to maintain a great standing in a healthy light. Taking care of the body will allow the body to fight off and decline diseases in the body such as Tuberculosis. TB can be prevented with the right steps before hand. However, after being infected the most important part is to take action towards the recovery process. The recovery process includes isolation from people, medication and rest.