Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

**__The Common and Scientific name of the disease__**
====**The common and scientific name of the disease is Tuberculosis, also known as //MTB,// //TB// or //Tubercle Bacillus//. It is a common and highly contagious deadly disease that cause productive cough and coughing up blood.**====

**__What causes it? How is it transmitted?__**
====**It's caused by the //Mycobaterium tuberculosis,//which is a virus that mainly attacks the lungs but can also affect the other parts of the body including the bones, joints, skin, lymph nodes and nervous system; however, it most commonly infects the lungs**.**Tuberculosis is mostly spread through the air when a TB infected person sneeze, cough, talk, spits or simply breaths around other people. Tuberculosis can also be spread from an infected pregnant woman to her unborn child. People with AIDS could easily catch tuberculosis due to the fact that their immune systems are incapable of counteracting the disease. Similarly, people with organ transplants who require drugs for the rest of their lives will also be likely to catch tuberculosis.**====

**__What are the symptoms? How long do they last? Is it deadly?__**

 * The symptoms are productive coughs that last for a long period of time, night sweating, loss of appetite, fever, tiredness, and even weight loss.Tuberculosis spreads easily from person to person, but not everyone who inhales the bacteria will actually develop the disease. Since the bacteria have the ability to remain latent in the body, the infection can last a lifetime. However, tuberculosis kills 3,000,000 people in the world every year, more than AIDS, malaria, and other tropical disease combined. One third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease cause of death and represents more than a quarter of the world's preventable deaths.**

__Can it be cured? If so, how? If not, is there any way that we can at least treat it?__

 * Even though it is a deadly disease, it could be curable. Antibiotics are used for killing //Mycobaterium Tuberculosis//**.
 * To find an effective way for Tuberculosis treatment is difficult, due to the unusual structure and chemical composition of the mycobacterial cell wall, which makes many antibiotics ineffective and hinders the entry of drugs.** **Even those infected but not suffering from the disease should take a course of antituberculosis drugs, including rifampin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol.**
 * These drugs must be taken for six to 12 months. Since many of those infected do not have the disease and therefore do not have symptoms, they choose to abandon the preventive treatment prematurely.**

Additional information below:

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Sources:
__**1)**__ "Mycobacterium tuberculosis." //MicrobiologyBytes//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. . __**2)**__ Pestilence, rne JP (2008). Encyclopedia of, Pandemics, and Plagues: A-M. "Tuberculosis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. . __**3)**__ Chandler, Stephanie. "How Long Does Tuberculosis Last? | eHow.com." //eHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | eHow.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. . __**5)**__ TTATBWeb. " Tuberculosis - YouTube ." //YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. .
 * __4)__** Karns, Kristie. "How is Tuberculosis Spread? | eHow.com." //eHow | How to Videos, Articles & More - Trusted Advice for the Curious Life | eHow.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2011. .