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Essays on tuberculosis
Paper on the history of tuberculosis
Essays on tuberculosis
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The problem:
Tuberculosis has been known to mankind since ancient times. Earlier this disease has been called by numerous names including ‘consumption’ (because of the severe weight loss) and ‘the white plague.’ Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the bacteria that causes TB), existed 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. In the 18th century in Western Europe, tuberculosis reached its peak with a occurrence as high as 900 deaths per 100,000.2
What is tuberculosis (TB disease)?
Tuberculosis is a contagious airborne disease that affects the lungs of humans and some animals i.e. cattle. If tuberculosis is left untreated and allowed to spread, it can then also affect the brain, kidneys, spine or other organ systems. As tuberculosis strikes the lungs a hole can develop which can cause an accumulation of air or fluid between the chest wall and lungs. This causes one of many tuberculosis symptoms: chest pain, and shortness of breath. (See fig.2) Infections can erode a blood vessel and the patient can bleed to death, or they can slowly suffocate as lungs become filled with tubercles.4
Cause of tuberculosis:
Tuberculosis can be caused by one of the four different organisms belonging to the genus mycobacterium: Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium africanum, Mycobacterium microti and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, the leading cause of tuberculosis in humans is due to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 9 which was discovered in 1882 by the German physician Robert Koch.10
Mycobacterium is a bacillus –a rod shaped, cord forming, bacteria. The reason the organism creates problems for its host is due to the fact that its cell wall contains large wax like lipids called mycolic acids. Mycolic acids are strong hydrophobic molecules that form a lipid...
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...otic inhibits the β-subunit of the RNA polymerase. This is an enzyme that transcribes bacterial RNA. Rifampicin does this by binding to RNA polymerase and blocking RNA synthesis, by physically preventing extension of RNA products.27
Pyrazinamide: The enzyme pyrazinamidase, in Mycobacteria, converts pyrazinamide to the active form pyrazinoic acid. Under acidic conditions, the pyrazinoic acid slowly leaks out and is thought to diffuse into the bacilli and gather, preventing mycolic acid synthesis.29
Ethambutol: Obstructs the formation of the cell wall. Mycolic acids attach to the 5'-hydroxyl forming a mycolyl-arabinogalactan-peptidoglycan complex in the cell wall. This inhibits the enzyme arabinosyl transferase. Disruption of the arabinogalactan synthesis, inhibits the formation of this complex and leads to increased permeability of the cell wall.30
The Black Death (also called the "plague" or the "pestilence", the bacteria that causes it is Yersinia Pestis) was a devastating pandemic causing the death of over one-third of Europe's population in its major wave of 1348-1349. Yersinia Pestis had two major strains: the first, the Bubonic form, was carried by fleas on rodents and caused swelling of the lymph nodes, or "buboes", and lesions under the skin, with a fifty-percent mortality rate; the second, the pneumonic form, was airborne after the bacteria had mutated and caused fluids to build up in the lungs and other areas, causing suffocation and a seventy-percent mortality rate.
Collapsed lungs happen most often as the result of some sort of trauma to the chest. This trauma includes but is not limited to rib fractures, gunshot wounds, knife wounds, or a hard hit to the chest, often the result of car accidents. There are also nonviolent causes for lung collapses, such as damaged lung tissue which is a result from smoking or other unhealthy activities. Unhealthy hung tissue is weaker than healthy lung tissue so it allows the lung to collapse more easily. Underlying undiagnosed medical conditions such as pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, and lung cancer could also be causes of a collapsed lung. Another possible culprit of a collapsed lung is air blebs, small air filled blisters that present themselves on the outer lining of some people’s lungs. When air blubs rupture, they have the capacity to cause atelectasis.
Today the world is plagued with a similar deadly disease. The AIDS epidemic continues to be incurable. In an essay written by David Herlihy, entitled 'Bubonic Plague: Historical Epidemiology and the Medical Problems,' the historic bubonic plague is compared with
The vulnerable populations studied are immigrants primarily Hispanic and Latinos with tuberculosis. The goal is to teach immigrants on how to prevent the spreading of TB and how to prevent the disease.
Signs and Symptoms of Active Tuberculosis Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MT) is a slender, rod-shaped, aerobic bacillus which causes tuberculosis. Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborn infection which is transmitted via inhaling droplet nuclei circulating in the air. These droplets are expelled from the respiratory secretion of people who have active TB through coughing, sneezing, and talking (Porth, 2011). Some bacilli stay in the upper airway and are swept out by mucus-secreting goblet cells and cilia on the surface of the airway.
The rail market continued to grow and by the 1860’s all major cities within the United States were connected by rail. The main diseases that showed the most virulence during the time were cholera, yellow fever and consumption, now known as tuberculosis. The 9th census mortality data showed that 1 out 7 deaths from disease were caused by tuberculosis and 1 out of 24 disease deaths were resulting from cholera. . Until the 1870s the general consensus of the spread of disease through population was still the primitive idea that it came from the individual and not specifically the pathogen.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The main symptom of the disease is shortness of breath, which gets worse as the disease progresses. In severe cases, the patient may develop cor pulmonale, which is an enlargement and strain on the right side of the heart caused by chronic lung disease. Eventually, this may cause right-sided heart failure. Some patients develop emphysema as a complication of black lung disease. Others develop a severe type of black lung disease in which damage continues to the upper part of the lungs even after exposure to the dust has ended called progressive massive fibrosis.
Tuberculosis has many forms that can invade the body. Many cures involve drugs and multiple combinations of the drugs. Drugs are used in combinations because tuberculosis can travel to different parts of the body. One of the causes for the spread of tuberculosis around the world is the emergence drug- resistance strain. Tuberculosis can become resistant to most, if not all, of the drugs that are used to treat tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is transmitted from person to person through airborne droplets, when a person that is infected with TB coughs, sneezes, talks, and/or sings letting tiny droplet to be released into the air(Bare, Smeltzer, Hinkle, and Cheever, 2008). TB cannot be spread through touching inanimate objects, food, or drinks (Bare et al. 2008). The person must be in the same area an affected individual is in and inspirate the droplets to be affected. Once the bacillus is inspired into the lungs, the bacilli start to multiply causing lung inflammation also known as nonspecific pneumontis (Huether et al. 2008). To cause an immune response the bacilli will travel through lymphatic system and become lodged in the lymph nodes (Huether et al. 2008). Lung inflammation causes the activation of the alveolar macrophages and neutrophils (Huether et al. 2008). Granulomas, new tissue masses of live and dead bacilli, are surrounded by macrophages, which form a protective wall. They then transform into a fibrous tissue mass, the central portion is called a ghon tubercle (Bare et al. 2008). The bacterial then necrotic, forming a cheesy mass, this mass may become calcified and form a collagenous scar (Bare et al. 2008). At this point, the bacteria becomes dormant and there is no further progression of the active disease. The disease can become active again by re-infection or activation of the dormant bacteria (Bare et al. 2008).
Tuberculosis is an air-borne disease, hence, it can be passed from an infected person to a healthy individual through coughing, sneezing and other salivary secretions. Tuberculosis is caused by the transfer of Mycobacteriun Tuberculosis (M. Tuberculosis) also known as Tubercle Bacillus, a small particle of 1-5 microns in diameter, due to the small size, when an infected person sneezes or coughs, about 3,000 particles are expelled. M. Tuberculosis responsible for tuberculosis is able to stay in the air for a long period of time (about 6hoursAnother way of acquiring Tuberculosis is by drinking unpasteurized milk, milk straight from cow, although this is not a common mode of transmission, it can be found in rural areas. Ingestion of contaminated cow milk transmits Mycobacterium Bovis, the animal form which is still potent enough to cause tuberculosis in humans. ). Tuberculosis transmission is affected by exposure, socioeconomic status of person, proximity, immune status of uninfected individual (%&&%&? CDC).
Pulmonary Fibrosis is a condition where the lung tissue becomes thick and scarred. The thickening and scarring of the lungs makes it hard for the oxygen supply to be delivered throughout the body. The scarring can be caused by many different factors, but it is hard for doctors to figure out exactly what caused the onset of this disease. The damage caused by this disease cannot be repaired. Pulmonary Fibrosis usually affects the age group of forty to seventy years old. Men are more likely to develop this disease, but women can also get this disease. Pulmonary Fibrosis is not a transmittable disease. Little is actually known about how the disease develops. There seems to be a genetic connection and environmental factors that cause the disease to develop.
Tuberculosis is transmitted by inhalation of aerosols containing the tubercle bacilli. The required inoculum size for infection is usually high, but easily occurs with exposure to a patient who is currently infected. The products of dried aerosols, droplet nuclei, are particularly infectious because they remain in the air for an extended time, and upon inhalation easily move to the alveoli. The severe damage related to infection is caused by the reaction of the host. The tuberculosis infection has two phases, primary and secondary.
Bacterial cells, like plant cells, are surrounded by a cell wall. However, bacterial cell walls are made up of polysaccharide chains linked to amino acids, while plant cell walls are made up of cellulose, which contains no amino acids. Many bacteria secrete a slimy capsule around the outside of the cell wall. The capsule provides additional protection for the cell. Many of the bacteria that cause diseases in animals are surrounded by a capsule. The capsule prevents the white blood cells and antibodies from destroying the invading bacterium. Inside the capsule and the cell wall is the cell membrane. In aerobic bacteria, the reactions of cellular respiration take place on fingerlike infoldings of the cell membrane. Ribosomes are scattered throughout the cytoplasm, and the DNA is generally found in the center of the cell. Many bacilli and spirilla have flagella, which are used for locomotion in water. A few types of bacteria that lack flagella move by gliding on a surface. However, the mechanism of this gliding motion is unknown. Most bacteria are aerobic, they require free oxygen to carry on cellular respiration. Some bacteria, called facultatibe anaerobes can live in either the presence or absence of free oxygen. They obtain energy either by aerobic respiration when oxygen is present or by fermentation when oxygen is absent. Still other bacteria cannot live in the presence of oxygen. These are called obligate anaerobes. Such bacteria obtain energy only fermentation. Through fermentation, different groups of bacteria produce a wide variety of organic compounds. Besides ethyl alcohol and lactic acid, bacterial fermentation can produce acetic acid, acetone, butyl alcohol, glycol, butyric acid, propionic acid, and methane, the main component of natural gas. Most bacteria are heterotrophic bacteria are either saprophytes or parasites. Saprophytes feed on the remains of dead plants and animals, and ordinarily do not cause disease. They release digestive enzymes onto the organic matter. The enzymes breakdown the large food molecules into smaller molecules, which are absorbed by the bacterial cells. Parasites live on or in living organisms, and may cause disease. A few types of bacteria are Autotrophic, they can synthesize the organic nutrients they require from inorganic substances. Autotrophic bacteria are either photosynthetic or Chemosynthetic. The photosynthetic bacteria contain chlorophyll that are different from the plant chlorophyll. In bacterial photosynthesis, hydrogen is obtained by the splitting of compounds other than water.
The disease itself was ripping apart the very fabric of society. The virus attacks the lymph nodes and lungs. The buboes formed from the virus are usually formed in the groin or armpit depending on the closest lymph node. The plague is highly contagious, spread by speaking, coughing, and sneezing. There are two types of plague, the septimic and the pneumonic.
The disease can be caused by different mycobacterium such as Mycobacterium bovis, M. africanum, M. canettii, M. microti, and most commonly, M. tuberculosis; although the five are highly similar and are together termed the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC). Recently, two additional organisms. Mycobacterium pinnipedii and Mycobacterium caprae have also been implicated with the disease in humans. 6, 7 Members of the MTBC are gram-positive, long, rod-shaped bacterium with unique characteristics such as an exceptionally slow growth rate and a high content of lipids in their cell wall which provide protection against degradation and may account for their persistent survival in the environment even after the death of a host. 8