THE tuberculosis is infectious disease It mainly affects the patient's lungs, causing cough, phlegm production, fever, sweating, tiredness, chest pain, lack of appetite and weight loss. More advanced cases may have sputum with blood.
As old as man himself, the disease-causing bacterium was even detected in human bones found in Germany and dated 8,000 BC. Apparently, with the end of the nomadic life of the human tribes, the spread of tuberculosis was favored as transmission indoors and / or crowded is much faster.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries European doctors tried to combat the spread of tuberculosis by isolating individuals who contracted it. Already at this time the disease was famous for frequently affecting the artistic class. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century the fame of?poets disease? was again associated with tuberculosis.
The reason why so many poets and writers contracted the disease, then, was the unruly, bohemian life these people led, for example, in the habit of going to places that were conducive to contagion, which they did not value for hygiene.
Better understand the cause, treatment and prevention of this disease than today? due to lack of adequate sanitation? is once again a worldwide public health problem, especially in developing countries.
Cause
The agent cause of tuberculosis is the bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as Koch's bacillus. It is transmitted from individual to individual through coughing or close contact.
Symptomatology
- Continuous dry cough which, lasting for more than four weeks, becomes secreted and later becomes a cough with blood;
- excessive tiredness;
- low fever;
- night sweats;
- lack of appetite;
- pallor;
- weight loss;
- hoarseness;
- weakness;
- prostration.
In severe cases, difficulty in breathing, large amounts of blood through coughing, lung collapse, and accumulation of pus in the pleura, which is the membrane lining the lung, may appear. If this membrane is compromised, it is common for the patient to feel chest pain.
Treatment
O tuberculosis treatment It is made of antibiotics and has 100% effectiveness when followed correctly and continuously, according to medical advice. Its normal duration is six months but, in many cases, the patient interrupts it when the symptoms improve. It is therefore important that follow-up is done regularly until the disease is effectively cured and the possibility of symptom recurrence is completely ruled out.
Prevention
One of the important steps in tuberculosis prevention It is the maintenance of basic hygiene care. Avoiding indoors and avoiding crowding are also World Health Organization recommendations. Children should be immunized with the vaccine known as "BCG"; however, children who are HIV positive, as well as newborns with signs or symptoms of AIDS, should not receive the vaccine.
5 Things to Know About TB (April 2024)
- Prevention and Treatment
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