In the 20th century, a widespread disease was feared at almost all the households in the world. And the reason was valid, the disease in question was a leading cause of deaths in majority of the countries of the time. The entire world was unclear what is the cause of the disease and how is the disease to be prevented by the people across the globe.
This came in as a mysterious medical condition in the 20th century as to how people got weak, got so much of cough and died later on. It was not until 1883 that tuberculosis was discovered and people got to know the reason behind so many deaths across the globe.
What is Tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection caused by the action of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis bacteria. The tuberculosis infection affects the respiratory tract and affects primarily the lungs and the windpipe. It is a contagious disease and can be transferred from one person to another through air by coughing and sneezing.
Tuberculosis attacks a person with weak immune system, and hence, places which are experiencing a widespread disease outbreak, are at a higher risk of experiencing a tuberculosis outbreak too, due to the weak immune system of the masses.
Types of Tuberculosis
Primarily, there exists 2 types of tuberculosis which have been found to be infecting humans till now. Let us discuss about them in detail and get to know about them.
• Latent Tuberculosis
This is the type of tuberculosis which is found in majority of the people. The patients having Latent Tuberculosis have the tuberculosis causing germs in the body, but they don’t fall sick. It is because the immune system of the person having latent tuberculosis is strong enough to suppress the infection.
• Active Tuberculosis
It is the case of latent tuberculosis only in which the bacteria within your body gets activated and gets an edge over your immune system. Once a person is infected by active tuberculosis, they start showing the symptoms of a tuberculosis infection and may need medical intervention to start a treatment and cure their tuberculosis infection.
Symptoms of Tuberculosis
The symptoms which show up in majority of active tuberculosis patients include:
- Cough: Patients suffering from tuberculosis experience cough which lasts for more than 3 weeks.
- Chest Pain: Though not experienced by all, but many a patients also experience chest pain while suffering from tuberculosis.
- Coughing up blood: Patients suffering from advanced stage of tuberculosis also develop a complexity in which they cough up blood, which indicates that medical intervention is highly needed.
- Weight Loss: Weight loss is a very common symptom of tuberculosis and almost all of the patients suffering from tuberculosis start losing weight.
- Feeling exhausted: The patients suffering from tuberculosis feel very exhausted throughout the day and generally don’t have the energy to do any major chores voluntarily.
- Night sweats: Though not a common symptom, but night sweating has been observed by many patients suffering from tuberculosis.
Prevention
Tuberculosis should be avoided to as much extent as possible. But since it is a microbial disease and is spread by the medium of air, it becomes very difficult to prevent a contact with the tuberculosis bacteria and save yourself from getting the disease. If you suspect yourself suffering from latent tuberculosis, then proper medication should be taken so as to prevent it from becoming active tuberculosis. If you are suffering from active tuberculosis, then you must prevent getting in contact with a lot of people and spread the disease to the masses.
Bottom line
Tuberculosis is not a deadly disease, but still no one would want to contact a disease. Adoption of the prevention techniques mentioned above in the prevention tab will ensure that you stay clear of the disease and don’t spread it to other people.
Stay Safe!
