what does mycobacterium tuberculosis do in our body? TB😱

Introduction: Today I'm going to discuss about Tuberculosis or TB. It is one of the top 10 causes of deaths worldwide and the world's deadliest infectious disease in The past 200 years it has killed more than 1 billion people more than malaria, HIV, AIDS, influenza cholera and the plague combined in ancient Greece It was called phthisis tabbies in ancient rome and scotch up earth in ancient Hebrew. It was also known as the white plague and the captain of all these men of death before its official name tuberculosis or TB for short. Numbers are less drastic than they used to be but still 10 million people in 2017 fell ill with it and 1.6 million people died from it including 230,000 children that is over 4 k humans every day. TB still exists and drug resistance is a continued threat. Now,

What is it? 

How does it work?

And how to tackle the disease?

Two billion people or one quarter of the population of the world has TB in latent form this means they are infected with it, but are not ill with a disease and cannot transmit it a person infected with TB has a 5- 15% chance of it turning it active and getting ill with it in their lifetime. People have a much higher risk of getting ill if they have a compromised immune system those with malnutrition Diabetes or HIV for example children pregnant women and the elderly also are at a higher risk So what is it TB is a disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis,

this bacterium primarily infects the lungs but it can also spread to other organs a person with active TB in their lungs can spread germs through the air when they cough sneeze or spit Just a few germs are enough to infect a person if you inhaled the bacteria by another person it travels down to the lungs where it will begin to multiply your Body's defense system will engage engulf and transport the bacteria to lymph nodes and try to kill or neutralize the bacteria Most healthy people will kill the bacteria And have no symptoms afterwards if your defense system can't kill the bacteria, but contains it this is when it is classed as latent if the bacteria overwhelmed the defense in the lungs and it is not contained. Then it will be active and you will become ill even in the latent state. The bacteria are inactive and can activate and spread in months or even years later. Having a low immune system as mentioned before heightens the risk this is especially true in young children who do not have a fully developed immune system for people with HIV.

 Typical symptoms of someone infected are 

1. Persistent cough lasting more than three weeks.

2. Blood when coughing.

3. High temperature.

4. Night sweats.

5. Weight loss.

6. Loss of appetite Swelling in the neck. 

If you or anyone, you know coughs up blood or has any of these symptoms for three weeks or more You should see a doctor as soon as possible. There are areas known as the thirty high burden areas where it is most common eighty seven percent of new cases in 2017 occurred in these countries and Two-thirds of these were from eight countries alone These are India, China, indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa. Overall 95 percent of cases and deaths are in developing countries. The vast majority of TB cases can be cured when medicines are available and administered properly Infants in countries with high infection rates are often given the bacillus Calmette gain vaccine or BCG but generally because of underfunding many infants are not and many adults go undiagnosed with TB until it is too late without proper treatment 45% of people get TB die and nearly all of those who are hiv-positive will die. The BCG vaccine is common for indian infants, after birth with in the first month it is given to every child. Smoking also significantly increases the risk of getting infected and dying from it. Worldwide 8% cases are connected to smoking, when diagnosed the standard course of treatment is six months of four antimicrobial drugs, which is normally enough to cure the patient fully. From 2000 to 2017 an estimated 54 million patients were diagnosed treated and saved from TB. Drug-resistant strains of TB are rising and in 2017 approximately five hundred and fifty-eight thousand new cases with resistance to rifampicin the most effective first line drug 85% of people resistant to this drug were also resistant to the common alternatives There are limited resources to the second line of treatment which can require two years of chemotherapy and medicines that are so  expensive, toxic and not always readily available. Many cases more severe resistance to drugs leaving them. No further treatment options at all. It is estimated that 3.5 billion US dollars are needed per year to fill the resource gap for implementing even the existing TB intervention research is ongoing to find new ways to treat drug-resistant. Some of the promising drugs are starting to emerge but more research and development is needed, some companies doing this. Volunteers are often the frontline in helping and more are needed to diagnose and administer drugs that help save lives all over the world Awareness is also important the more people know of the symptoms and how to react the higher chance of lives being saved by reading and gaining more knowledge against this deadly disease.

Conclusion: Importance of TB awareness is why necessary we can understand by watching the stats and death rate mentioned above. Most important thing is to develop good drugs again mycobacterium tuberculosis, because 85% patients are drug-resistant to first line of drugs. Devlopment and research are needed and funding is so important. Awareness is also so important to stop spread and diagnosis for early detection of TB.

Thank you guys. Keep following my my blog and leave suggestions in comments and tell me if you ever get in touch with any of news regarding Tuberculosis(TB).

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