The people most likely to catch tuberculosis (TB) are those who have had prolonged, close contact with someone who has active, infectious TB disease and those with weakened immune systems. TB spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, speaks, or sneezes.
Tuberculosis spreads easily where people gather in crowds or where people live in crowded conditions. People with HIV/AIDS and other people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of catching tuberculosis than people with typical immune systems.
Persons with low body weight (<90% of ideal body weight) People who use substances (such as injection drug use) Populations defined locally as having an increased incidence of disease due to M. tuberculosis, including medically underserved and low-income populations.
Anyone can get TB, but some people are higher risk than others. The chances of getting infected by the TB germ are highest for people that are in close contact with others who are infected. This includes: People who recently spent time with someone who has active TB disease.
Tuberculosis: Causes and How It Spreads
Tuberculosis (TB)
The process of becoming infected with TB begins when inhaled TB bacteria, also known as tubercle bacilli, begin to multiply in the small air sacs of the lungs. Some TB bacteria then enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.
TB is often known as “a disease of the poor” because the burden of TB follows a strong socioeconomic gradient both between and within countries, and also within the poorest communities of countries with high TB incidence [2].
Outside the home, TB spreads most easily in crowded conditions such as jails, shelters, nursing homes and school dorms. Once infected, people with conditions that weaken their immune system, such as diabetes or HIV and people who use excessive amounts of alcohol, are at higher risk for becoming sick with TB disease.
Globally men are significantly more at risk of contracting and dying from TB than women. In 2017 close to 6 million adult men contracted TB and around 840,000 died from it. This compares with an estimated 3.2 million adult women who fell ill and almost half a million who died from TB.
Tuberculosis is preventable and curable. About a quarter of the global population is estimated to have been infected with TB bacteria. In general, people with TB infection don't feel sick and are not contagious. About 5–10% of people infected with TB will eventually get symptoms and develop TB disease.
A positive test result for TB infection means you have TB germs in your body. If you test positive for TB infection, your health care provider will do other tests to determine if you have inactive TB (also called latent TB infection) or active TB disease.
Australia reports approximately 1300 cases of TB per year and has a TB case notification rate of 5.5 cases per 100,000 population.
Part 1 – Phthisis, consumption and the White Plague. In that time it also became known as the great white plague and the white death [4, 5, 24], called “white” because of the extreme anaemic pallor of those affected [4, 25].
Tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease in the world. Why is it so dangerous, and what are the symptoms? A stubborn cough can be a sign of tuberculosis or TB. Tuberculosis is still around, and cases have been on the rise in recent years in Colorado and around the U.S. Photo: Getty Images.
Although it is spread in a similar way to a cold or the flu, TB is not as contagious. You would usually have to spend prolonged periods in close contact with an infected person to catch the infection yourself. For example, TB infections usually spread between family members who live in the same house.
Can tuberculosis be prevented?
Common symptoms of active TB disease include cough, pain in the chest, and coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm). People with inactive TB, also called latent TB infection, do not have symptoms of TB disease and cannot spread TB to others.
TB most commonly affects the lungs – what's known as the body's pulmonary system. But it affects other organs too, what's known as extrapulmonary TB.
RISK FACTORS FOR TUBERCULOSIS
Active TB Treatment
If you have an active TB disease you can be treated with medication. Treatment time can take four to nine months depending on the treatment plan. Combinations of medications may include Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Moxifloxacin, Rifampin, Rifapentine and Pyrazinamide.
Initially, the cough may be dry, but it can later produce sputum, which may be blood-tinged.
BCG, or bacille Calmette-Guérin, is a vaccine for TB disease. Many persons born outside the United States have been BCG-vaccinated. The primary benefit of BCG is its effectiveness in preventing children from contracting severe disseminated TB or TB meningitis.
Australia: BCG vaccination was used between the 1950s and mid-1980s. BCG has not been part of routine vaccination since the mid-1980s.