What is Tuberculosis - Symptoms, Causes & Risk Factors

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that we commonly refer to as TB. This bacterial infection often spreads through a person’s lymph nodes and can reach almost any organ through the blood.

The most common place that doctors find and identify the TB infection is in the lungs.

One of the major problems with Tuberculosis is that a person can have the infection for many years, but never know that they are infected. This happens because the bacteria remain inactive, but still continue to live in your body.

Tuberculosis is most often activated when you experience a period of a weak immune system. For example, someone who gets older is far likelier to develop TB symptoms.

Similarly, individuals with HIV/AIDS are at serious risk of showing TB symptoms and dying from the infection.

What Does Tuberculosis Mean?

When we talk about Tuberculosis, we are referring to a bacterial disease that results in the growth of certain nodules, or tubercles, within our body’s tissues.

While the disease can be in our body for a long time, the tissue growth and development of TB often takes place in a human being’s lungs.

What is the Cause of Tuberculosis?

The cause of tuberculosis normally stems from an individual getting the bacteria from another through prolonged periods of contact.

When the bacteria become active, which sometimes does not happen for years, they start to infect your body and cause serious symptoms.

What Bacteria Causes Tuberculosis?

The bacteria responsible for TB is known as the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacterium is unique, not only for its deadly nature but for how long it can remain dormant in your body.

People who have weak immune systems or an unhealthy lifestyle put themselves at the greatest risk of letting the bacteria spread through the body.

Tuberculosis Symptoms

If you are experiencing an extended bout of coughing, chest pains, blood when you cough, constant fatigue and weight loss, you might be suffering from tuberculosis. Other symptoms include a lack of appetite, constantly feeling cold even in a warm setting, high fever and profuse sweating at night.

Keep in mind, your chances of showing TB symptoms increase significantly if you have HIV or other health problems. Diabetes is also a condition that impacts your immune system’s ability to stop the TB bacteria from growing and developing.

Consistent abuse of alcohol or drugs is also a factor in developing TB. People who always drink or use drugs are weakening their immune system, which results in a hospitable environment for the TB bacteria to spread and produce symptoms.

If you suffered from TB in the past, but the treatment was improper or unsuccessful, you have a greater risk of developing the disease at a later date.

Learn more: Signs and Symptoms of Tuberculosis

Is Tuberculosis Airborne?

Yes, unfortunately the bacteria that is responsible for people getting tuberculosis is able to travel and spread through the air. This is a contagious disease that can transfer from one person to another.

However, you are only likely to get infected if you spend a lot of time living or working in close proximity to a person who is actively experiencing the disease.

Even if you do happen to get infected with TB through contact with another person, the chances are that you will never know. Most people who get infected never experience any symptoms in their lifetime.

In addition, when you have latent tuberculosis (you are not showing symptoms), you are not able to infect anyone else. This makes it easy to spot the potential possibility of getting the disease from another person.

If you believe there is a chance you came into extended contact with someone who actively had the TB condition, it is better to see a doctor immediately. Doctors can test for the inactive bacteria and recommend medication to kill them off. This prevents you from ever showing symptoms in the future.

The best way to arm yourself against getting tuberculosis is by wearing a facemask. This is especially true if you are living with someone who is showing symptoms. Instead of moving, which is not always practical, you can wear the antibacterial facemask to prevent the bacteria from traveling through the air into your body. These facemasks are also important for anyone who has TB, because the last thing you want is to infect someone else.

Facts about Tuberculosis

Roughly 1.5 million people around the world died as a result of the tuberculosis bacteria in 2014.

Most of these deaths happen in countries with low incomes and poor medical services. Children are often at the greatest risk of getting TB, with 1 million children getting the disease in 2014.

Around 140,000 of those children passed away, with most deaths occurring due to poor or no available health services.

Learn more: 10 facts about tuberculosis | WHO

How does Tuberculosis Spread?

Much like other airborne conditions, tuberculosis can spread from one individual to another.

However, it does not spread at the rate of influenza or similar fast-moving airborne viruses. In fact, only people with TB symptoms can spread the disease to others. In addition, spread only happens if you are constantly around someone with TB – it does not take place through casual encounters or passing someone on the street.

How do you Catch Tuberculosis?

In terms of how it is spread, the TB infection can go from one person to another through a cough, sneeze or simply breathing a lot of the air that another person exhales.

However, you are not going to get tuberculosis from someone if you shake their hand, share food with them, drink from the same cup as them, use a toothbrush that they used or by kissing them.

Types of Tuberculosis

There are two major categories for TB conditions, pulmonary TB and extra-pulmonary TB.

There are five major types of tuberculosis:

• Primary Tuberculosis Pneumonia, which is extremely infectious and starts with a high fever. This is most common among young kids or individuals with HIV/AIDS.

• Tuberculosis Pleurisyresults in granuloma around your lungs in the space between the lungs and chest. This fluid rapidly increases in volume, which fills up your lungs and causes a lot of pain and shortness of breath. This is a painful condition, but it also goes away with time even in situations where the patient gets no treatment.

• Cavitary TB, which impacts the upper lobes in your lungs. This bacteria forms cavity in your lungs and begins to destroy them. This is an incredibly infectious strain of the disease, and it also requires serious treatment for a full recovery.

• Miliary TB, which shows up as small nodules within your lungs on an x-ray. This happens fairly quickly after you get infected, and causes serious illness. The high fever and other symptoms from Miliary TB put patients very close to death.

• Laryngeal TB, which is also very infectious and has its greatest impact on your vocal chords.