the ABC’s of Tuberculosis

written & illustrated by Frances MacLeod

A single sneeze can release up to 40,000 droplets. Each one of these droplets can transmit the disease, since the infectious dose of tuberculosis is very low. Inhaling less than just ten bacteria may cause an infection.

AEROSOL DROPLETS

This vaccine is prepared from a strain of the weakened live bovine tuberculosis bacillus. At best, the vaccine is 80% effective in preventing tuberculosis for a duration of 15 years.

BACILLUS CALMETTE-GUERIN

Consumption is an old name from the middle ages for tuberculosis that describes how the illness wastes away/consumes its victims. As the name implies, the disease caused patients to “waste away” and “lose flesh,” even though they remained active, desired sustenance, and maintained a fierce will to live.

CONSUMPTION

This is a standard way of helping patients take their medicine. Patients meet with a health care worker several times a week at a clinic, their home or work, or other locations. The health care worker makes sure the patient is on schedule to recover.

DIRECTLY OBSERVED THERAPY

The former first lady & diplomat developed bone marrow tuberculosis, which affects the blood-cell producing tissue found in the tubercles of the bone.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Fever and other symptoms such as chills, night sweats, weight loss, pallor, and appetite loss contribute to the already devastating effects of tuberculosis.

FEVER

GENOTYPINGThis lab-based approach is used to analyze the genetic material the bacterium that cause tuberculosis. These results, when combined with epidemiologic data, help identify similar chains of TB transmission.

The rise in HIV infections & the neglect of TB control programs have enabled a resurgence of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS

Shooting up drugs is bad enough, but intravenous drug users have a greater risk of catching tuberculosis, especially when using unsanitary needles.

INTRAVENOUS DRUG ABUSE

TB was not identified as a single disease until the 1820s and was not named “tuberculosis” until 1839 by this German professor of medicine.

J.L. SCHONLEIN

KING’S EVIL

Tuberculosis of the neck that affects lymph nodes was called “King’s Evil” because of the Middle-Aged belief that the royal touch could cure the ailment.

The creator of the Braille alphabet fell victim tuberculosis. The air at the institute was foul and he died in Paris of tuberculosis in 1852 at the age of 43.

LOUIS BRAILLE

This bacteria is the causative agent in most cases of tuberculosis. MTB a pathogen of the respiratory system and infects the lungs.

MICROBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS

He may have conquered the majority of the free world, but this little emperor’s immune system couldn’t conquer the combination of stomach cancer & tuberculosis.

NAPOLEON

While lungs are the primary victim of tuberculosis, all parts of the body can be affected by the disease, though it rarely affects the heart, skeletal muscles, pancreas and thyroid.

ORGANS

The mucus produced by the respiratory system is also called sputum. Samples are used to diagnose and study specific cases of TB.

PHLEGM

Quarantine is voluntary or compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of a disease. Extensively drug-resistant TB patients are typically quarantined.

QUARANTINE

Tuberculosis begins in the respiratory system when one inhales aerosol droplets. Once the lungs become infected, the disease can spread to joints, organs, and the bloodstream.

RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

Because tuberculosis was believed to be caused by bad air, many patients were sent to nature retreat-like medical facilities. Patients were exposed to plentiful amounts of high altitude fresh air and good nutrition.

SANATORIA

Tubercles in the lungs develop as a result of infection by the tuberculosis bacterium. Granulomas form in the infected tissue and undergo necrosis in the center.

TUBERCLE

This portion of the lung is also called the Ghon focus, this is the primary site of infection in the lungs. From there, it moves through the blood stream to tissue and organs.

UPPER LOBE

In folklore, TB was sometimes regarded as vampirism. Symptoms such as red, swollen eyes (which creates a sensitivity to bright light), pale skin, low body heat, a weak heart and coughing blood, suggesting the idea that the only way for the afflicted to replenish this loss of blood was by sucking blood.

VAMPIRES

WHITE PLAGUEAn old name for tuberculosis is the White Plague because sufferers appeared markedly pale.

EXTENSIVELY DRUG-RESISTENT TUBERCULOSIS

This form of TB is caused by bacteria that are resistant to the most effective anti-TB drugs. It has emerged from the mismanagement of multidrug-resistant TB and once created, can spread from one person to another.

Tuberculosis may seem like a distant disease of the past, but it’s very present in the world today! Roughly a third of the world’s population has been infected with m. tuberculosis, and new infections occur at a rate of one per second. Be aware of symptoms and visit the doctor frequently!

YOU!

ZIEHL-NEELSEN STAIN A special bacteriological stain

must be used to identify acid-fast organisms and microbacteria. It is helpful in diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis since its lipid rich cell wall makes it resistant to Gram stain.

© Frances MacLeod, 2012