Tuberculosis

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Recommended: Primary and secondary prevention of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis. It was the cause of countless deaths throughout the history of humanity. It has been a fearful disease and has existed with humans for thousands of years; in the past two centuries alone, it ruthlessly murdered and crippled billions of people! It also has been called the white plague or white death, as this single microbe can be so devastating. It is one of the diseases that has tormented humans for ages and the story of this gruesome slaughterer continues even today.

Tuberculosis (TB) has various infections that can completely immobilize one's body. Its infections are varied and it generally eats away lung tissues and forms boils that releases pus. As disease proceeds, lungs would mercilessly be devoured and the victim will become pallid and fragile, coughing up blood and becoming unable to breathe. The word consumption originated from this sickness because o Infections in digestive tract can cause serious vomiting, bloody diarrhea, and acute pain. Aside from lungs, it can also infect bloodstream and even kidneys. TB can also cripple people's nervous system and their bones. Basically, it can destroy one's body completely. Surprisingly, the germ causing it (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) is extremely small.

This killer germ is passed on through droplet infection including sneezing and coughing (less contagious than cold or flu but fatal) and only people with active tuberculosis are infectious. (63) Other way it can infect humans are through milk and milk infections are extremely rare.

The treatment of this killer started with a man named Hermann Brehmer, who started building a sanatorium for TB patients, which provided healthy diet and fresh air. This idea disseminated throughout Europe and eventually ...

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...Department of Health and Human Services of United States proposed a goal to completely abolish tuberculosis from the Earth by 2010. However, several Missouri counties have stated tuberculosis' recent rise and saying it still is a threat as it is airborne and infectious; tuberculosis will persist to be a peril to humanity (Nochlin, 2010). People still need to defeat various obstacles to reach that goal as AIDS and TB are cooperating to kill victims faster as well as intensifying the dangers of certain TB. Different parts of the world are also in danger, including India and Africa and Africa is particularly in great danger. Twenty-five million there are HIV-positive and 200 million are infected with inactive TB (Zimmerman, 2003). Certainly, these statistics forecast an inevitable massacre and the white death may become the greatest health disaster in human history.

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