What is
T B
Tuberculosis (TB)
is a disease caused by a germ called micro bacterium Tuberculosis that is
spread from person through the air. TB usually affects the lungs, but it can
also affect other organs of the body; such as; the brain; the kidneys or even
the spine. Not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. As a result,
two TB related conditions exist latent TB infection and TB disease.
What is
Latent T B?
Persons with
latent TB infection do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms; the only
sign of TB infection is a positive reaction to the tuberculin skin test or Manteaux.
Persons with latent TB infection are not infectious and cannot spread TB infection
to others overall without treatment, about 5 to 10% of infected persons will
develop TB disease at some time in their lives, for those with weaker immune
systems the risk is considerably higher.
Persons infected
by someone with extensively drug resistant TB or (XDR-TB) who later develop TB disease will
have (XDR-TB), not regular TB .
Diagnosis
The person with
latent TB infection usually has a skin test or blood sample indicating TB infection,
has a normal chest X ray ;and a negative sputum tests; does not feel sick; has
a TB bacteria in his /her body that are alive but inactive ; and cannot spread
TB bacteria to others.
General
Symptoms
The general
symptoms of TB include coughing, hemoptysis, chest pain and a skin test that is
positive with elevated borders and greater than 10mm in diameter; because of
inter keukin 6 which is an Immune response to in interleukin 6 activation
stemming from the injection of manteaux the HIV patient will not manifest any
type of inflammation which will yield a false positive therefor a chest X ray
is the best diagnostic tool to use with this special population ; persons with
latent TB will have very little symptoms ; additionally if the HIV patient has
latent TB he or she may not produce a positive manteaux, may not show signs and
symptoms and may not even feel sick but still be able to spread TB.
References
CDC
(2013) Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDRI)
TBhttp://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheet/drtb/mdrtb.htm.
