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Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, [7] is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. [1] Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs , but it can also affect other parts of the body. [ 1 ]
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 .
The risk of developing TB is estimated to be between 20 and 37 times greater in people living with HIV than among those without HIV infection. TB is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV. [13] In 2009, there were 9.4 million new cases of TB, of which 1.2 (13%) million were among people living with HIV.
Robert Koch, a Prussian physician, discovered the cause of tuberculosis. Villemin's experiments had confirmed the contagious nature of the disease and had forced the medical community to accept that tuberculosis was indeed an infectious disease, transmitted by some etiological agent of unknown origin.
The causes listed are relatively immediate medical causes, but the ultimate cause of death might be described differently. For example, tobacco smoking often causes lung disease or cancer, and alcohol use disorder can cause liver failure or a motor vehicle accident.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis has a variety of causes, but resistance usually due to treatment failure, drug combinations, coinfections, prior use of anti-TB medications, inadequate absorption of medication, underlying disease, and noncompliance with anti-TB drugs.
Miliary tuberculosis is a form of tuberculosis that is characterized by a wide dissemination into the human body and by the tiny size of the lesions (1–5 mm). Its name comes from a distinctive pattern seen on a chest radiograph of many tiny spots distributed throughout the lung fields with the appearance similar to millet seeds—thus the term "miliary" tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis does not always settle in the lungs. If the outbreak of tuberculosis is in the brain, organs, kidneys, joints, or others areas, the patient may have active tuberculosis for an extended period of time before discovering that they are active. "A person with TB disease may feel perfectly healthy or may only have a cough from time to ...