Pulmonary tuberculosis

One of the most threatening diseases of all time is tuberculosis. This affliction can affect various organs, but the main areas of interest are the lungs – this is called pulmonary tuberculosis.

The disease is caused by various strains of bacteria, in both humans and in animals, but to be more precise, humans are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Since early times, people have been threatened by this killing disease. Even with time, tuberculosis is still a dangerous affliction throughout the world, because more and more strains of the same bacteria become resistant to more and more antibiotics. Soon, people may lose the cure for tuberculosis.

Basically, tiny droplets are spread into the air when an infected person coughs, sings, screams, talks, sneezes etc. If a healthy person ingests the spores, the bacterium travels through the respiratory tract to the lungs. A healthy immune system can suppress the growth of the bacteria, but if a person has a scarred immune system, one that can’t fight this infection, the bacteria is more likely to multiply and infect the lungs, causing extensive inflammation. By comparison to a forest, tuberculosis is like a fungus that, in the right weather conditions, can spread and occupy all the trees.

Pulmonary tuberculosis can, therefore, affect people with the immune-deficiency virus commonly known as HIV or AIDS, people that undergo chemotherapy, people suffering from cancer – these types of people are susceptible to this affliction due to their compromised immune system. In addition, the elderly and infants also have an increased sensitivity in contacting the disease. People with advanced ages have weakened immune systems; the body can’t produce the necessary substances that help the body fight off diseases and therefore getting infected can prove to be a very serious and threatening problem. On the other hand, infants do not have a fully formed immune system; their bodies are too young to be put in such a compromising situation.

Pulmonary tuberculosis has various symptoms, many of which coincide with symptoms of other types of tuberculosis or even with the way other diseases act (for example: weight loss, loss of appetite, night chills and sweats, etc.).

Despite this, there are many other signs can trigger the idea of pulmonary tuberculosis. If a person has a persistent cough, combined with blood in the sputum (material expelled when coughing from the lungs) or extensive chest pains, a high difficulty in breathing, or even excessive heart palpitation, one must deduce the existence of this condition.

Once suspected, tuberculosis can be diagnosed and treated. The most common way of diagnosing tuberculosis is using the skin test, but for pulmonary tuberculosis, in particular, physicians usually opt for chest X-rays and CT scans. The diseased areas can also be revealed by using a contrast substance, that doesn’t interact with body’s processes, when getting the CT scans made. These methods show visual proof of the existence of the affliction and of the degree in which the disease has spread and the specific area of infection. Pulmonary tuberculosis looks like tiny bunches of snow, in different sites of the lungs, depending on how advanced the disease is.

Tuberculosis is an exceptionally sensitive and aggressive disease. When talking about tuberculosis, one may consider that pulmonary tuberculosis is the softest variety, by comparison with spinal tuberculosis, for example, but in fact no tuberculosis is better than any type of it. Pulmonary tuberculosis may just be the beginning of a chain of other serious diseases.