Tuberculosis Day 2025 is on Monday, March 24, 2025: tuberculosis?

Monday, March 24, 2025 is Tuberculosis Day 2025. What is Tuberculosis?‎ Learn how TB is spread, its symptoms, and TB treatment.

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Each year, each day is devoted to raising awareness about t . b, generally referred to as TB. The very first Tuberculosis Day was at 1982, 100 years after Dr Robert Koch introduced towards the scientific community he had discovered the reason for the virulent disease, thus paving the way in which to have an eventual cure.During the time of Koch’s announcement, TB was among the world’s most harmful illnesses, killing an believed one out of seven people. Even though the virus has almost been eradicated within the civilized world, still it poses a significant condition in developing nations and it is creating a comeback in places that there's significant overcrowding and poor diet.You are able to mark Tuberculosis Day by researching the worldwide methods to combat the condition by raising awareness in your community. This almost-forgotten disease is essential because TB isn't just a Dickensian disease it's still greatly around.

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Tuberculosis

Treatment

Date updated: December 21, 2006

Content provided by MayoClinic.com

Until the mid-20th century, people with tuberculosis were routinely cared for in sanitariums - often for years - where the clear, cold air, abundant food and enforced rest were believed to heal the lungs and halt the wasting that's characteristic of the disease. Often, the treatment not only helped cure TB, but also prevented its spread.

Today, medications are the cornerstone of tuberculosis treatment. The therapy is lengthy. Normally, you take antibiotics for six to 12 months to completely destroy the bacteria. The exact drugs and length of treatment depends on your age, overall health, the results of susceptibility tests, and whether you have TB infection or active TB.

Treating TB infection

If tests show that you have TB infection but not active disease, your doctor may recommend preventive drug therapy to destroy dormant bacteria that might become active in the future. In that case, you're likely to receive a daily dose of the TB medication isoniazid (INH). For treatment to be effective, you usually take INH for six to nine months. Long-term use can cause side effects, including the life-threatening liver disease hepatitis. For that reason, your doctor will monitor you closely while you're taking INH. During treatment, avoid using acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) and avoid or limit alcohol use. Both greatly increase your risk of liver damage.

Treating active TB disease

If you're diagnosed with active TB, you're likely to begin taking four medications - isoniazid, rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane), ethambutol (Myambutol) and pyrazinamide. This regimen may change if susceptibility tests later show some of these drugs to be ineffective. Even so, you'll continue to take several medications. Depending on the severity of your disease and whether there is drug resistance, one or two of the four drugs may be stopped after a few months.

Sometimes the drugs may be combined in a single tablet such as Rifater, which contains isoniazid, rifampin and pyrazinamide. This makes your therapy less complicated while ensuring that you get the different drugs needed to completely destroy TB bacteria.

Another drug that may make treatment easier is rifapentine (Priftin), which is taken just once a week during the last four months of therapy. Sometimes you may be hospitalized for the first two weeks of therapy or until tests show that you're no longer contagious.

Completing treatment is essential

Because TB bacteria grow slowly, treatment for an active infection is lengthy - usually six to 12 months. After a few weeks, you won't be contagious and may start to feel better, but it's essential that you finish the full course of therapy and take the medications exactly as prescribed by your doctor. Stopping treatment too soon or skipping doses can create drug-resistant strains of the disease that are much more dangerous and difficult to treat. Drug-resistant strains that aren't treated can quickly become fatal, especially in people with impaired immune systems.

In an effort to help people stick with their treatment regimen, some doctors and clinics use a program called directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS). In this approach, a nurse or other health care professional administers your medication so that you don't have to remember to take it on your own.

Treatment side effects

Side effects of TB drugs aren't common, but can be serious when they do occur. All TB medications can be highly toxic to your liver. Rifampin can also cause severe flu-like signs and symptoms - fever, chills, muscle pain, nausea and vomiting. When taking these medications, call your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following:

Nausea or vomiting

Loss of appetite

A yellow color to your skin (jaundice)

A fever lasting three or more days that has no obvious cause, such as a cold or the flu

Tenderness or soreness in your abdomen

Blurred vision or colorblindness

Treating drug-resistant TB

Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is any strain of TB that can't be treated by the two most powerful TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampin. Extensive drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a newly developed strain of TB that's resistant to the same treatments that MDR-TB is, and additionally XDR-TB is resistant to three or more of the second-line TB drugs.

Both strains develop as a result of partial or incomplete treatment - either because people skip doses or don't finish their entire course of medication or because they're given the wrong treatment regimen. This gives bacteria time to undergo mutations that can resist treatment with first-line TB drugs.

MDR-TB can be treated. But it requires at least two years of therapy with second-line medications that can be highly toxic. Even with treatment, many people with MDR-TB may not survive. And when treatment is successful, people with this form of TB may need surgery to remove areas of persistent infection or repair lung damage.

Treating these resistant forms of TB is far more costly than treating nonresistant TB, making therapy unaffordable in many parts of the world.

Because these resistant infections are spreading and could potentially make all TB incurable, some experts believe that ineffective treatment is ultimately worse than no treatment at all.

Treating people who have HIV/AIDS

Treating people who are co-infected with TB and HIV is a particular challenge. HIV-positive people are especially likely to develop MDR-TB and to rapidly progress from latent to active infection. What's more, the most powerful AIDS drugs - protease inhibitors - interact with rifampin and other drugs used to treat TB, reducing the effectiveness of both types of medications.

To avoid interactions, people living with both HIV and TB may stop taking protease inhibitors while they complete a short course of TB therapy that includes rifampin. Or they may be treated with a TB regimen in which rifampin is replaced with another drug that's less likely to interfere with AIDS medications. In such cases, doctors carefully monitor the response to therapy, and the duration and type of regimen may change over time.

Without treatment, most people living with both HIV and TB will die, often in a matter of months. In such cases, the primary cause of death is TB, not AIDS.

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What is tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis also called TB, is an infection caused by a bacteria (a germ). Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, but it can spread to the kidneys, bones, spine, brain and other parts of the body.

How does doctor check for tuberculosis?

The most commonly used method to check for tuberculosis is the PPD skin test. If you have a positive PPD, it means you have been exposed to a person who has tuberculosis and you are now infected with the bacteria that causes the disease. After you have a positive PPD skin test, you must have a chest x-ray and a physical exam to find it whether have active disease or are contagious (able to spread the disease). It usually takes only a few days to tell whether you're contagious. Most people with a positive skin test aren't contagious.

If I have a positive PPD test, do I have tuberculosis?

Not necessarily. A person can be infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis but not actually have tuberculosis disease. Many people are infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, but only a few of these people (about 10%) go on to develop the disease. People who do have the disease are said to have "active" tuberculosis. Healthy people who get infected with the tuberculosis bacteria are able to fight off the infection and do not get tuberculosis disease. The bacteria is dormant (inactive) in their lungs. If the body is not able to fight off the infection and the bacteria continues to grow, active tuberculosis develops.

How will doctor treat the tuberculosis infection?

To be sure that you remain healthy, your doctor may recommend that you take medicine for 6 months to kill the tuberculosis infection. If you don't take the medicine, the bacteria will remain in your lungs, and you will always be in danger of getting active tuberculosis. The medicine used to treat tuberculosis infection is isoniazid (say: eye-so-nye-ah-zid), which is also called INH. You need to take 1 pill every day for 6 months.

It is very important that you take the medicine every day. Keep the medicine in a place where you will always see it. Take it at the same time every day. Ask your doctor what to do if you forget to take a pill.

People who take INH may have side effects, but not very often. Side effects include a skin rash, an upset stomach or liver disease. Ask your doctor about other side effects that might happen.

Don't drink alcohol or take acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol) when you're taking INH. Always check with your doctor before you take any other medicine because some drugs interact with INH and cause side effects.

Every month you will need to visit your doctor to get another prescription of the medicine you are taking and to be sure you don't have any side effects or problems from the medicine. If you are feeling well, your doctor will give you a prescription for the next month.

Could I still get active tuberculosis after I take the medicine for 6 months?

Even after you take the medicine every day for 6 months there is a small chance that you could develop active tuberculosis disease, because some bacteria are resistant to the medicine. Staying healthy depends on having sensible living habits. You need enough sleep and exercise and a healthy diet to keep up your health and resistance to the tuberculosis bacteria.

Would I know if I developed active tuberculosis?

You might not know that you have active tuberculosis. Tuberculosis bacteria can grow in your body without making you feel sick. However, most people with active tuberculosis don't feel well. People with tuberculosis often feel tired and have a cough that won't go away. They may also lose weight, have a fever or break out in a sweat during the night (called "night sweats"). They may have trouble breathing. If you have active tuberculosis, you will have to get regular checkups and chest x-rays for the rest of your life to make sure you stay free of disease, even after you have taken tuberculosis medicine.

What is the treatment for active tuberculosis?

If you have active TB, your doctor may recommend that you take 4 medicines:

Isoniazid

Rifampin (one brand name: Rifadin)

Ethambutol (brand name: Myambutol)

Pyrazinamide

It's very important that you take all the medicine given to you. For the medicines to work at curing your tuberculosis, you must not skip a single dose.

Avoid drinking alcohol or taking acetaminophen (brand name: Tylenol) while you're taking the tuberculosis medicine. Tell your doctor about any other medicines you may be taking.

Your doctor may also order several sputum and blood tests to be done while you are being treated for tuberculosis. (Sputum is phlegm coughed up from deep inside the lungs.) These tests can be done by the nurse or at a clinic.

Tuberculosis?

TB is not a highly infectious disease. Transmission usually requires close, frequent and prolonged exposure to a person with active respiratory TB. Transmission of respiratory tuberculosis is mainly person-to-person by inhalation (airborne) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Exposure to live MTB bacteria does not necessarily result in acquisition of MTB disease.

A risk assessment needs to be performed to assess your wife's risk. There must be someone at her place of employment (Staff Health, etc.); start with them. Also, is the TB respiratory or not? People can get admitted to hospital with TB in other parts of the body- e.g., bones. This type of TB is not infectious.

The city you live in has a TB Control program- this program has staff who identify possible contacts who would require follow up. For instance, they will interview the person with TB and find out who are the people they have spent the most time with, close quarters, etc. The testing will start with these people- they will get PPD tested as well as get chest x-rays. The number of people who come back with positive results from this 'round' of testing, will determine if further testing is necessary (e.g., if the person spent 24 hours a day with 6 people, and none of them tested positive, the likelihood of transmission is minimal and further testing likely won't occur).

The absolute risk of TB transmission occurring under any given circumstance is impossible to predict. However, there are some factors that appear to increase the likelihood of transmission. These include:

- Infectiousness of the case

- Duration and frequency of exposure to the infectious particles

- Environment in which the exposure occurs

- Virulence of the strain of M. tuberculosis involved