Name of the Disease: Tuberculosis
Name of the Causative Agent: Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a rod-shaped, non-motile, aerobic, facultative intracellular parasite. It can be found in either water or soil. The hydrophobic bacterial cells of tuberculosis possess a high-content lipid cell wall. This helps the cells to increase virulence, resist antibiotics, resist acidic or basic elements, and/or resist osmotic lysis.
Nature of the Disease:
There are two categories of this disease, active and latent. Active pulmonary tuberculosis bacteria manifests by rapidly multiplying, invading the lungs, and can be spread by aerosol droplet spray through the mouth or nose. Latent pulmonary TB (LTBI) patients that have the disease do not exhibit symptoms or positive test results, and cannot spread the infection to others. There is a form of extra pulmonary TB that occurs outside of the lungs. Miliary tuberculosis is a rare form of the active disease that occurs when bacteria find their way into the bloodstream and affect multiple organs at one time.
Initially, the bacterium causes the disease by ingestion of the human through droplet spray. Macrophages then consume the cells by phagocytosis. Due to the high lipid cell wall, it is able to withstand the harsh environment. It can survive and thrive in the patient, and continue to cause disease.
Signs and Symptoms:
A person infected with active tuberculosis may present any of the following symptoms. These include: fatigue, night sweats, cough, loss of appetite, fever, blood in sputum, or weight loss. However, a person with latent tuberculosis may not exhibit any symptoms, or only an occasional cough.
There are three ways a patient can be tested for TB. First, the tub...
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...udes the rabies vaccine, wound care, and human rabies immune globulin. If caught early, treatment can stop the disease, but there is no cure once clinical systems appear.
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Works Cited
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Plagues and Peoples. By William H. McNeill. (New York: Anchor Books: A division of Random House, Inc., 1976 and Preface 1998. Pp. 7 + 365. Acknowledgements, preface, map, appendix, notes, index.)
Tuberculosis or TB is an airborn infection caused by inhaled droplets that contain mycobacterium tuberculosis. When infected, the body will initiate a cell-mediated hypersensitivity response which leads to formation of lesion or cavity and positive reaction to tuberculin skin test (Kaufman, 2011). People who have been infected with mycobacteria will have a positive skin test, but only ones who have active TB will show signs and symtoms. Basic signs and symptoms include low grade fever, cough with hemoptysis, and tachypnea. They may also show pleuristic chest pain, dyspnea, progressive weight loss, fatigue and malaise (Porth, 2011).
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Pink Book "Tetanus" N.p.: n.p., n.d. Http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/tetanus.pdf. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
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One of the first steps to treating Tuberculosis is identifying which form has developed in the body. The two forms that could progress in the body are latent Tuberculosis infection and active Tuberculosis infection (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Latent Tuberculosis is the dormant form of the bacteria, meaning that it is inactive and doesn?t cause an infectious reaction in the body. Even if the latent form enters the body, treatment should be sought (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Latent Tuberculosis can become active Tuberculosis easily though, especially if the immune system is compromised by another infection, like HIV (CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports). Active Tuberculosis infects the body immediately. Symptoms show in the body meaning the bacteria is effecting the cells of the body. Identifying the form is important because treatment is dependent upon it. Testing for TB involves a skin test, usually within seven work-days of contact with the bacteria. Without knowing what is in the body, the drugs won?t be as effective and might even cause drug-resistance.
"Preventing Exposures to Bloodborne Pathogens among Paramedics." Workplace Solutions (2010): n. pag. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
Rabies is a deadly virus that occurs in the brain. It can affect all mammals but the ones that are most commonly found with the virus are dogs, bats, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes. This means that any non-mammal can not contract the virus, such as fish, birds, and reptiles (2). The virus can be contracted by humans with saliva transfer with broken skin contact from an animal which has the disease. As this is the most common form of transferring the disease it is very believable that Tea Cake contracts the virus from the wild dog that “managed to bite [him] high up on his cheek bone once” (1). The rabies virus works by being a bullet shaped virus that directly attacks th...
Myobaterium tuberculosis is a nonmoving, slow-growing, acid-fast rod transmitted via aerosolization (airborne route). People who are most often infected are those having repeated close contact with an infectious person who has not yet been diagnosed with TB (Ignatavicius and Workman, 2006). Therefore, when a person with active TB coughs, sneeze, laughs, sings, or whistles, droplet become air borne and may be inhaled by others. Far more people are infected with the bacillus than actually develop active TB. The bacillus multiplies freely when it reaches a susceptible site (bronchi or alveoli). The majority of the bacilli are trapped in the upper parts of the airways where the mucus-secreting goblet cells exist. An exudative response occurs, causing a nonspecific pneumonitis (Ignatavicius and Workman, 2006). With the development of acquired immunity, further growth of bacilli is controlled in most initial lesions. Bacilli can also spread by erosion of the caseating lesions into the lung airways -and the host becomes infectious to others. Cell-mediated immunity develops 2 to 10 weeks after infection and is manifested by a positive reaction to a tuberculin test. Skin testing for tuberculosis is useful test to detect. According to Universi...
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).
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a nonmotile, acid-fast, obligate aerobe. The bacilli are 2-4 um in length and have a very slow generation time of between 15 and 20 hours. The cell wall of the mycobacterium is unique in that it is composed mainly of acidic waxes, specifically mycolic acids. M. tuberculosis is unusually resistant to drying and chemicals, contributing to the ease with which it is transmitted.
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.
Robert May. “Plagues and People.” IUBMB Life. Vol. 58 Issue 3 (2006). . 120. http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=20856641&site=ehost-live.
Active tuberculosis only develops in about 10% of infected persons, remaining dormant in the rest; although the latent infection may later progress to active disease years later, especially in immune-compromised individuals. 9 Infection by MTBC may involve any organ of the body, but clinical presentation is most common in the lungs (pulmonary TB). General symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue and severe cough with bloody sputum (hemoptysis) which may lead to death if untreated. 10 Mortality rates without treatment are high: in a study of natural history of TB in HIV-negative patients, 70% died within 10 years. 11 Tuberculosis remains a major health problem in the world...