Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by bacterium Mycob

Tuberculosis has ravaged this world with it’s presence for thousands of years. Scientists say the TB has existed since at least 2000 B.C., as shown by tubercles they found in mummified bodies (Dormandy, 1999). Also, references to TB can be found in the writings of ancient Babylonia, Egypt, and China. It is very hard to believe that a tiny bacterial strain can spread around for this long of a time. Most of our significant research into the causes and cure of TB began in the early 19th century. The term tuberculosis was first used in 1839, and it is derived from the Latin word tubercula , meaning small lump, referring to the small scars seen in tissues of infected individuals (Ott, 1996). French physician Gaspard Bayle described the damage caused by TB in 900 autopsies he performed on bodies that died from this terrible plague. He made a lot of significant discoveries as to what TB affected in the human body (Dormandy, 1999). After Bayle, Rene-Theophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, also a French physician, described the evolution of the disease from the initial tubercle through its final stages. J.A. Villemin, a French doctor, showed that TB could be transmitted through the air by putting people infected with the disease in a room with animals. Sure enough, in time all the animals had contracted the early stage of the disease (Dormandy, 1999). The first American to do extensive work on TB was a physician named Edward Trudeau. Trudeau was affected by the disease twice, in 1873 and 1876. When he thought he was dying, he traveled to Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York to spend his final days. When he found his symptoms eventually cured, he attributed his healing to the fresh air of the mountains. In 1885 Trudeau built the first American sanatorium (institution for treating chronic diseases). It later became a model for the many sanatoriums that became the mainstay of TB treatment in the late 19th century and early 20th century. By 1930 the United States had 600 sanatoriums with a total of 84,000 beds (Bloch, 1989). Trudeau also established the Trudeau, which during the following 50 years, was responsible for training most physicians versed in the treatment of TB.

After the important finding of the bacteria, scientists and bacteriologists went hard to work to come up with an antibiotic for the disease. In Paris, French bacteriologists Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin worked with a virulent strain of bovine (cow) tubercle bacillus at the Pasteur Institute. In 1924 they prepared the BCG vaccine in hopes of protecting the world against the deadly TB disease. It was administered to a newborn child who was at high risk of developing TB. The vaccine was successful, and the child never contracted the disease. This breakthrough heralded the beginning of modern antibiotic therapy.

acterium tuberculosis, which is spread almost exclusively by airborne transmission (Ott, 1996). This bacterial infection primarily affects the lungs, but which may also affect the kidneys, bones, lymph nodes, and the brain. This horrible disease is transmitted from person to person, usually by inhaling bacteria-carrying air droplets. When a person infected with TB coughs, sneezes, or speaks, small particles that carry two to three bacteria surrounded by a layer of moisture are released into the air. Another person in contact with this infected person may inhale these particles, the bacteria may lodge in this person’s lungs and multiply. If a person is left untreated, their active TB will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year (Morbidity and Mortality Report, [MMR] 1999). But people infected with TB will not necessarily get sick with the disease. The immune system walls off the TB bacilli which, protected by a thick waxy coat, can lie dormant for years. When someone’s immune system is weakened, the chances of getting sick are much greater.

Some topics in this essay:
Diagnosis TB, Primary TB, TB United, Mountains York, Africa Asia, Tuberculosis TB, Pasteur Institute, TB Dormandy, Egypt China, Report MMR, ijtl 1999, mmr 1999, tb bacteria, jama 1999, active tb, infected tb, tb infection, dormandy 1999, person infected tb, people infected, drug therapy, developing active tb, immune system weakened, tb secondary tb, risk developing active,