World Tuberculosis Day: Every year, almost 1.5 million people die of tuberculosis. It is urgent to know if the following symptoms have prolonged their stay in the body.
World Tuberculosis Day: Tuberculosis is a serious bacterial infection that mainly affects the lungs. It is a highly infectious disease that can further affect the kidneys, bone joints, brain, spine, heart muscles, and larynx in case it reaches a severe stage. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) and most often affects the lungs. TB is spread through the air when people with pulmonary TB cough, sneeze, or spit. A person needs to inhale only a few germs to become infected.” The WHO stated that each year about 10 million people become ill with tuberculosis (TB). Despite being a preventable and curable disease, which makes it the leading infectious cause of death in the world.
Although there are antibiotics and a course of treatment for TB, 1.5 million people die from TB each year. There are also different stages of TB, which differently trigger or determine the severity of the symptoms of this contagious disease.
symptoms of tuberculosis
TB is just as contagious as any other flu, as it is also spread the way germs are spread in the air when someone already infected coughs, sneezes, or spits outdoors. According to Mayoclinic, there are mainly three stages of TB and each stage has different symptoms.
Primary infection: This is the first stage when germs enter the immune system. While there is a chance for strong immune systems to successfully fight germs, some could still survive and cause mild flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and coughing and sneezing.
latent infection: After primary, comes the stage of latent Tb. At your stage, the germs are already inside but our immune system creates a firewall. Therefore, these TB germs cannot really affect the body and can be detected with a skin test or X-ray. There are no real symptoms of it.
Active tuberculosis: At this stage, the immune system can no longer control the spread of the infection. It usually occurs a few months after the primary stage is reached. The symptoms of active TB can get worse over time if they are not treated:
- Coughing up blood or mucus
- Chest pain
- Pain when breathing or coughing
- Fever
- Chills and night sweats
- Weightloss
- loss of appetite
- Fatigue and a general feeling of sadness.
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis: This is when active TB spreads outside the lungs to different parts of the body. This is called extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Therefore, the symptoms differ depending on the part of the body affected:
- Coughing up blood or mucus
- Chest pain
- Pain when breathing or coughing
- Fever
- Chills and night sweats
- Weightloss
- loss of appetite
- Fatigue and a general feeling of sadness.
- Pain near the site of infection.
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