Tuberculosis or TB is an infectious lung disease that causes a huge number of deaths all over the world. Tuberculosis has many signs and symptoms. One of the clinical features is weak lungs. The duration of signs and symptoms which persist after treatments vary. The duration is different from one person to another. Patients react and respond to treatment differently. Some patients will recover from weak lungs earlier than the others. Get Answers for any disease to guide you in understanding and choosing the best treatment for any of your health conditions.
To confirm that someone is having tuberculosis, history taking, physical examination, and investigations are needed. History taking and physical examination are important to detect and analyze the signs and symptoms of a patient. The signs and symptoms of Tuberculosis are:
- Fever
- Cough
- Shortness of breath
- Unintentional weight loss
- Painful ulcer in a few sites of the body
- Malaise
- Coughing out blood
- Night sweats
- Abnormal findings on chest and lung examination
- Abnormal findings from general physical examination
Many of these signs are related to those of disease and lung cancer. That is why it is best to visit a doctor and get yourself tested for tuberculosis before jumping to any conclusions.
The signs of tuberculosis in other organs depend on the area of germs. For instance, tuberculosis of the spine will lead to back pain; while that of the lymph nodes will lead to swelling of the neck.
Most symptoms are not apparent until the disease reaches an advanced stage. And, many times, the symptoms are attributed to another illness or disorder and people neglect to go to a doctor.
Most people who get infected with tuberculosis bacilli will get the disease in the first few years, but the bacilli can lie dormant in the body for years before causing an infection.
Tuberculosis may harm not only the lungs, but other portions of the body as well, especially the bones and kidneys, but also sometimes the intestines, spleen, and liver.
Bacteria cause this disease. But intemperance in eating, drinking, and dressing, exposure to cold, loss of sleep, impure air, lack of proper running, not breathing deeply enough to open up all the lung cells, leading a sedentary life, overwork, lack of adequately prepared nourishing food, and an unbalanced diet all pave the way for the tuberculosis germ to gain a foothold.
Tuberculosis or TB is still causing so many deaths all over the world. This disease is now no longer only affecting the third world countries and developing countries. Tuberculosis is now the burden of developed countries too. This is because the migration rate is high nowadays. The mode of transportation and digital technologies have made travelling and migration much easier. People travel for so many reasons. The examples are for education, job, vacation, and medical attention.
China, India, Russia, and the countries of the former Soviet Union are the countries which reported to have the highest number of Multidrug Resistance Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) cases. Risk factors for Multidrug Resistance Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are:
- Persistent abnormal chest x-ray findings despite being under treatment
- Blood cultures are still positive although been treated for at least 3 months
- Not compliance with anti-TB medications
- Poorly supervised treatment
- Previous history of treatment failure
- Relapse
- Exposure to the patient with Multidrug Resistance Tuberculosis
- Travel to countries with a high number of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis cases
- Woking in any place with reported Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis cases
Resistance to anti-tuberculosis medications is one of the reasons why there is still a high number of Tuberculosis (TB) cases all over the world. Resistance to anti-tuberculosis medications has a few different definitions. The definitions are:
- Drug-resistant TB is when the causative organism is resistant to any of the first-line anti-TB medications
- Multidrug-resistant TB is when the causative organism is resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, and other possible medications
- Pre-extensively drug-resistant TB is when the causative organism is resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, and quinolones or other injectable medications
- Extensively drug-resistant TB is when the causative organism is resistant to isoniazid, rifampicin, fluoroquinolones, and aminoglycosides or capreomycin or both.
- Drug-resistant TB is when the causative organism is resistant to all medications
- Primary drug resistance is when a patient developed resistance even before receiving any anti-TB medications before
- Secondary drug resistance is when a patient developed resistance after receiving anti-Tb medications before
Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis patients will require a different treatment plan and approach. They need to be on an expanded empiric treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB. There are few options for an expanded empiric treatment regimen for drug-resistant TB. The selection of the suitable treatment option depends on many factors, evidence, and clinical judgment of a physician. Get Answers for any disease to guide you in understanding and choosing the best treatment for any of your health conditions.