Consumption is an obsolete name for the terrible tuberculosis disease known throughout the world. This is a chronic infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Respiratory organs suffer from tuberculous mycobacteria in most cases, but tuberculosis of the eyes, joints and bones, peripheral lymph nodes and urogenital organs is also found in medical practice.
Statistical data
Consumption disease was widespread in Tsarist Russia. More often than not, the poorest peasants who suffered brutal exploitation from day to day suffered from the disease. A sharp rise in mortality from this disease occurred in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The short-lived consumption in the 19th century became a real scourge of the country, claiming millions of lives annually. At that time, every 7th resident of Europe was dying from this disease.
In the middle of the 20th century, consumption continued to be a common disease in all countries of the world. Currently, according to the World Health Organization, approximately 20 million consumptive patients live on the planet, and 7 million of them have an infectious form of the disease. Every year, more than 1 million people die from consumption, and about 3.5 million become ill with it.
Bit of history
People in the distant past believed that consumption was a contagious disease, since caring for a sick person soon began to hurt her. Various assumptions were made about the nature of this ailment, but they were all untenable.
Significant progress in understanding the nature of the disease was achieved in the 19th century. A huge role in this was played by such world-famous scientists as Jean-Antoine Wilmieu, Rene-Teofil Lannek and Robert Koch. So, Lannack created an anatomical and clinical method involving the use of the stethoscope he invented. Wilman managed to prove that consumption is contagious. And in 1882, Koch discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, later named after him. And therefore, in a modern way, consumption is tuberculosis.
For 8 years after the discovery of the bacillus, Koch conducted immunological experiments on tuberculosis cultures. The results made a huge contribution not only to treatment, but also to disease prevention.
Features of the disease
The causative agent of consumption is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which for a long time (up to six months) can maintain its viability and rapidly develop resistance to various drugs.
The source of infection is a carrier person. As a rule, the disease is transmitted by airborne droplets, however, tuberculosis infection can also penetrate through the intestines in case of eating meat or milk from sick animals.
In the tissues where the pathogen has settled, foci of inflammation are formed, which undergo caseous necrosis and further melting due to exposure to bacterial toxins. With a high degree of resistance to immunity, these foci can calcify. Under adverse conditions, a melting focus of cavity necrosis is observed.
Consumption: symptoms
Consumption can manifest itself with various symptoms, which include the following:
- Fever . Patients usually tolerate an increase in body temperature quite easily and often practically do not feel it. Usually during the day the temperature remains normal, and in the evening for a short time its increase is 1 or 2 degrees, and such jumps are unstable and can occur a couple of times a week.
- Increased sweating . Patients with consumption in the early stages of the disease often complain of excessive sweating on the chest and head. The symptom of a "wet pillow" or severe sweating can be observed with miliary tuberculosis, caseous pneumonia, and other severe forms of consumption.
- Shortness of breath . The lungs are not able to provide the body with the necessary amount of oxygen, and therefore, even short physical exertion causes shortness of breath.
- Coughing. In the early stages of the disease, cough as such may be absent, patients only occasionally note coughing that occurs from time to time. With the progression of consumption, the cough intensifies and can be both unproductive (dry) and productive (with the release of sputum). Dry cough is characteristic of the initial period of the development of the disease, while progressive tuberculosis is accompanied by the discharge of sputum during coughing.
- Hemoptysis . Usually this symptom is observed with cirrhotic, fibro-cavernous infiltrative pulmonary tuberculosis . As a rule, hemoptysis gradually stops, however, after fresh blood is released, the patient continues to cough up dark clots for several days.
- Chest pains . Most often they are noted during coughing. This suggests that in addition to the lungs, the destructive process also affected the pleural sheets.
Symptom Time
Consumption is a disease that for a long time may not make itself felt. The body of most infected people is able to fight the pathogen, while preventing its growth. However, the infection does not leave the body, but simply goes into an inactive form. A person will not have symptoms of the disease, moreover, consumption may not develop at all. But as soon as the immune system weakens, the disease can be converted into an active form. In this case, the symptoms of the disease can be felt within months, or even years after infection.
Treatment features
Consumption is a disease that requires complex treatment, including the use of antibacterial drugs and vitamin therapy. To recover the patient, simultaneous administration of several anti-TB drugs is necessary , since only the general effect of several drugs can destroy Koch's bacilli.
The main method of controlling consumption is multicomponent anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy. In the later stages of the disease, it is recommended that surgery be performed - a resection of the affected part of the lung.
In modern times, consumption is a treatable disease. The main thing at the same time is to remember that the earlier this disease was detected, the easier it will be to get rid of it.