Tuberculosis is an infectious disease in humans and animals that is caused by several varieties of mycobacteria. The causative agent of this disease is Koch's bacillus, which enters the body by airborne droplets.
How can you get TB?
It is known that one sick person can infect about 20 people in just a day. Infection can occur without personal contact, for example, through dirty dishes. The causative agent of tuberculosis does not die even at low or high temperatures, in contact with moisture or sunlight. Koch's wand can live in dust, on pages of magazines and books for up to 3 months. TB can be transmitted by insects (cockroaches, flies). There is an opportunity to get sick by eating milk and meat from infected animals.
According to WHO, about a third of the world's population is infected. Every year, 8 million people become infected, and 2 million die from the disease. In 2008, 25 thousand people died in Russia. It is known that people living in adverse conditions are more likely to develop tuberculosis. There are also a number of factors due to which a person has an increased sensitivity to the disease. The most serious is AIDS.
Signs of early tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a fairly serious disease, although it is often difficult to determine. Signs of the disease depend on its form and are similar to signs of bronchitis. If there is chronic tuberculosis, then there are no symptoms as such, for a long time the patient may not suspect that he is sick. Early symptoms of tuberculosis may also be absent in many people.
What to look for
- Profuse sweating at night. This symptom appears before everyone else and is present until the patient begins medication.
- Fatigue, drowsiness, weakness. These signs of tuberculosis in the early stages have a weak severity, many believe that this is just fatigue of the body. One has only to sleep well and relax, as everything goes. However, if a person is really sick, such actions will not help.
- Dry cough. It is usually mistaken for one of the signs of a cold. At later stages, a productive cough is observed with expectoration of sputum, often with blood.
- Subfebrile fever is a state of the body when the temperature of a person’s body rises slightly (usually not higher than 37 and a half degrees Celsius). For many, this body temperature can persist in the late stages of tuberculosis, although it is likely that it will rise to 38 degrees and above.
- Frequent heartbeat.
- Pain in the stomach.
- Enlarged liver and lymph nodes.
- Bronchitis.
Unlike regular flu, coughing does not stop; it is impossible to lower the temperature. There are persistent wheezing in the lungs that do not go away, even if appropriate medications are taken. If a patient with tuberculosis passes tests, then a large amount of protein will be detected in the urine, the level of ESR in the blood is also increased.
In children, as in adults, tuberculosis can be diagnosed. Signs, symptoms of this disease are no different. Although in the early stages of the disease, there may be a deterioration in appetite. And along with this there is a decrease in the weight of the child or there is no increase in body weight. If, during a medical examination, the doctor finds that the child’s weight does not match his age, then he must send him for an examination, during which a Mantoux test will be made.
Tuberculosis is not a joke
However, many people do not take the symptoms of tuberculosis at an early stage seriously, believing that it is a common cold or flu, stress or fatigue.
Modern medicine can cure tuberculosis at an early stage. But the detection of the disease at the initial stage is still very important, since this prevents the infection from spreading. Even if a person only recently fell ill with this disease, while in public places, communicating with people, he poses a danger to the health of others. If you notice symptoms of tuberculosis at an early stage, you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. Children, as well as adults who have a weak immune system, are most susceptible to infection.
Forms of tuberculosis
There are closed and open forms. Each of them has its own characteristics in the course of the disease and treatment.
An open form of tuberculosis is most dangerous for others, since coughing, sneezing, spitting up saliva, the patient releases pathogens into the environment. And people in contact with him are at great risk of infection.
Open tuberculosis usually appears in people who previously had no contact with Koch's wand. The infection enters the lung, inflammation occurs. Then the inflamed area dies. This process is clearly visible during the procedure of fluorography of the lungs. This stage is usually asymptomatic.
There is the so-called secondary open tuberculosis, which appears in previously ill people. In the process of the disease, death of the lung sections also occurs, but with the further development of the disease, its tissues may break and the infection enters the bloodstream, spreading to other internal organs. This form of the disease is also called miliary. The development of this stage of tuberculosis usually occurs within a couple of months, there are symptoms such as severe cough and fever.
In Russia, quite often, patients with the second form of tuberculosis began to appear. Such a diagnosis is made to the patient when he is sick with tuberculosis, but does not pose a threat to healthy people, since the causative agent of the infection does not enter the external environment. In the second form of tuberculosis, the disease proceeds slowly, then subsides, then worsens again, becomes chronic. Identifying the disease is not easy. The fight against tuberculosis of this form is complex.
Closed TB is characterized by
- The absence of external signs of infection.
- Pleurisy, when fluid accumulates in the lungs.
- The occurrence of chest pain with a deep breath.
- General weakness.
Diagnosis of tuberculosis
1. Microscopic examination of a sputum smear. A negative result from this study does not indicate the absence of infection. Often at the initial stage of the disease it is difficult to identify Koch's bacillus. Therefore, this procedure must be performed at least three times.
2. X-ray or chest x-ray.
3. Sowing sputum. Using this procedure, bacteria cultures are grown from a sputum sample taken from a person. The analysis is carried out for a rather long time - about three months. But it allows you to identify the sensitivity of pathogenic bacteria to antibiotics, which allows doctors to prescribe an effective medicine.
Treatment
Both forms of tuberculosis are treated by a TB doctor. You need to know that a full recovery is guaranteed only with a timely diagnosis. It is necessary to undergo a fluorography procedure every year to prevent the development of a closed form of tuberculosis. Many people do not pay attention to the symptoms of tuberculosis at an early stage, believe that x-ray radiation is harmful to health, and subsequently end up in a tuberculosis dispensary.
The treatment of this serious disease should be carried out continuously and for a long time. In addition to chemicals, people who are being treated are prescribed medications that improve immunity, respiratory gymnastics and physiotherapy.