Tuberculosis is the infection affecting lungs and is most common in parts of the world.

Route of spread of infection:
TB is a communicable disease which a person can get from an infected person through tiny droplets when the infected person coughs or sneezes and another person inhales those droplets.

When a person gets infected then he/she might not get sick right away but these may happen:-

  1. Body’s immune system starts to kill the bacteria and then the person may not get sick.
  2. When body’s immune system able to control the bacteria but may not completely kill them, it is known as “latent TB”. People with latent TB may not get sick right away but can get sick later in life, and people who are sick with TB right after catching the infection then it is known as “active TB”.
    Symptoms:-

The most common symptoms are:-

  1. Long lasting cough.
  2. Fever.
  3. Sweating at night.
  4. Unexplained weight loss.

Diagnostic test:
Latent TB:- after learning about the symptoms doctor may advise for certain test such as:-Blood test and skin patch test and if the person has positive test then doctor may advise for more test to confirm that the person is having active TB or latent TB.

Treatment:
Treatment depends upon whether a person is sick or not.

  1. Latent TB:- if a person has latent TB and is not sick then he/she might need to take treatment for atleast 3months or more.
  2. Active TB :- if a person is sick with active TB then he/she must take four different medications everyday for atleast 2months and after that the person may take medications for another 4months and sometimes medications may get down to only 2 medications, which means the person needs to take the medication for in total 6months.
    Note:- it is very important to take all the medications given on time and never skip the dose, because if the treatment is left in between the bacteria becomes resistant to medications and becomes even harder to treat.

Side-effects:
TB medications can cause different side-effects to liver and if a person is taking medications for TB then he/she must not take alcohol or acetaminophen drug along with it because it can cause severe side-effects.

Other side-effects includes:

  1. Tiredness.
  2. Nausea and vomiting.
  3. Loss of appetite.
  4. Dark-coloured urine.
  5. Jaundice.
  6. Abdominal pain.
  7. Itchy skin.

Tb is very serious disease and can even cause death.