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Tuberculosis

All you need to know about tuberculosis (TB)





Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs, though it can affect any organ in the body. It can develop when bacteria spread through droplets in the air. TB can be fatal, but in many cases, it is preventable and treatable.

In the past, TB, or “consumption,” was a major cause of death around the world. Following improvements in living conditions and the development of antibiotics, the prevalence of TB fell dramatically in industrialized countries.
However, in the 1980s, numbers started to rise again. The World Health Organization (WHO) describe it as an “epidemic.” They report that it is among the top 10 causes of death globally and “the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent.”
The WHO estimate that in 2018, nearly 10 million people around the world developed TB and 1.5 million people died from the disease, including 251,000 people who also had HIV.
A majority of the people affected were in Asia. However, TB remains a matter of concern in many other areas, including the United States.
The same year, doctors reported 9,025 cases of TB in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Currently, antibiotic resistance is causing renewed concerns about TB among experts. Some strains of the disease are not responding to the most effective treatment options. In this case, TB is difficult to treat.

What is tuberculosis?







a person with a sore throat because she has tuberculosisShare on Pinterest
A person with TB may experience swollen lymph nodes.
A person may develop TB after inhaling Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) bacteria.
When TB affects the lungs, the disease is the most contagious, but a person will usually only become sick after close contact with someone who has this type of TB.

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