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If TB bacteria gain entry to the blood stream from an area of damaged tissue, they can spread throughout the body and set up many foci of infection, all appearing as tiny, white tubercles in the tissues. [96] This severe form of TB disease, most common in young children and those with HIV, is called miliary tuberculosis. [97]
Latent tuberculosis (LTB), also called latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is when a person is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but does not have active tuberculosis (TB). Active tuberculosis can be contagious while latent tuberculosis is not, and it is therefore not possible to get TB from someone with latent tuberculosis.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb), also known as Koch's bacillus, is a species of pathogenic bacteria in the family Mycobacteriaceae and the causative agent of tuberculosis. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] First discovered in 1882 by Robert Koch , M. tuberculosis has an unusual, waxy coating on its cell surface primarily due to the presence of mycolic acid .
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Treatment of active TB disease is typically a combination of antibiotics, which results in patients being non-infectious to others usually within a few weeks. Until that point, though, patients can spread TB to others and it’s typically adults with reactivated TB that are the most infectious.
Once inhaled TB frequently grows in the lungs, but can spread to any part of the body. Although TB is highly contagious, in most cases the human body is able to fend off the bacteria. But, TB can remain dormant in the body for years, and become active unexpectedly. If and when the disease does become active in the body, it can multiply rapidly ...
An infectious disease agent can be transmitted in two ways: as horizontal disease agent transmission from one individual to another in the same generation (peers in the same age group) [3] by either direct contact (licking, touching, biting), or indirect contact through air – cough or sneeze (vectors or fomites that allow the transmission of the agent causing the disease without physical ...
After the latency period (but before clinical infection) the infected person can transmit the disease without signs of any symptoms. Such infection is called subclinical infection. Incubation period (also known as the latent period or latency period ) is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical, or radiation , and ...