Tuberculosis

• Tuberculosis Overview
• Tuberculosis Causes
• Tuberculosis Symptoms
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Exams and Tests
• Tuberculosis Treatment
• Medical Treatment
• Next Steps
• Prevention
• Outlook
• Multimedia
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors
• Related tuberculosis articles:
  Tuberculosis - on WebMD
  Tuberculosis - on MedicineNet

Tuberculosis Overview

Tuberculosis (TB) describes an infectious disease that has plagued humans since the Neolithic times. Two organisms cause tuberculosis-Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis.

Physicians in ancient Greece called this illness "phthisis" to reflect its wasting character. During the 17th and 18th centuries, TB caused up to 25% of all deaths in Europe. In more recent times, tuberculosis has been called "consumption."

• Robert Koch isolated the tubercle bacillus in 1882 and established TB as an infectious disease.
  
  
  • In the 19th century, patients were isolated in sanatoria and given treatments such as injecting air into the chest cavity. Attempts were made to decrease lung size by surgery called thoracoplasty.
    
    
  • During the first half of the 20th century, no effective treatment was available.
    
    
  • Streptomycin, the first antibiotic to fight TB, was introduced in 1946, and isoniazid (Laniazid, Nydrazid) became available in 1952.
  
  
• M tuberculosis is a rod-shaped, slow-growing bacterium.
  
  
  • M tuberculosis' cell wall has high acid content, which makes it hydrophobic, resistant to oral fluids.
    
    
  • The cell wall absorbs a certain dye and maintains a red color despite attempts at decolorization, hence the name acid-fast bacilli.
  
  
• M tuberculosis continues to kill millions of people yearly worldwide. In 1995, 3 million deaths from TB occurred.
  
  
  • Up to 8 million new cases of TB develop each year.
    
    
  • More than 90% of these cases occur in developing nations that have poor resources and high numbers of people infected with HIV.

• In the United States, incidence of TB began to decline around 1900, because of improved living conditions.
  
  
  • TB cases have increased since 1985, most likely due to the increase in HIV.

• Tuberculosis continues to be a major health problem worldwide. In 1997, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 32% of the global population was infected with TB bacteria.
  
  
  • 7.9 million new cases of TB developed.
    
    
  • 1.87 million people died of this disease.
    
    
• With the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis continues to lay waste to large populations. The emergence of drug-resistant organisms threatens to make this disease once again incurable.
  
  
• In 1993, the WHO declared tuberculosis a global emergency.