tuberculosis

Also known as hydrothorax, TB, phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, consumption, phtisis, phthosis pulmonalis

Tuberculosis (TB) (RP: , ), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as inactive or latent tuberculosis. A small proportion of latent infections progress to active disease that, if left untreated, can be fatal. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. In

AI overview

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease caused by bacteria that usually affects the lungs, though it can spread to other parts of the body, and while most people infected show no symptoms, a small proportion develop active disease that can be fatal if untreated. It matters because active tuberculosis causes serious symptoms like chronic cough, fever, and weight loss, and without treatment can kill infected people.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Medical condition.name: Tuberculosis
Medical condition.image: Tuberculosis-x-ray-1.jpg
Medical condition.alt: Chest X-ray of a person with advanced tuberculosis
Medical condition.caption: Chest X-ray of a person with advanced tuberculosis: Infection in both lungs is marked by white arrowheads, and the formation of a cavity is marked by black arrows.
Medical condition.field: Infectious disease, pulmonology
Medical condition.synonyms: Phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, consumption, white death, great white plague
Medical condition.symptoms: Chronic cough, fever, cough with bloody mucus, weight loss. Latent TB infection is asymptomatic
Medical condition.causes: Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Medical condition.risks: Immunodeficiency
Medical condition.diagnosis: CXR, microbial culture, TB skin test, interferon gamma release assay
Medical condition.differential: Pneumonia, histoplasmosis, sarcoidosis, coccidioidomycosis
Medical condition.prevention: Screening those at high risk, treatment of those infected, vaccination with bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)
Medical condition.treatment: Antibiotics
Medical condition.frequency: 10.7 million new infections per year (2024)
Medical condition.deaths: 1.23 million per year

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

318,611 papers

[Tuberculosis 2006].Orvosi hetilap · 2007Strausz JDOI: 10.1556/OH.2007.28057
[Acute tuberculosis].Soins; la revue de reference infirmiere · 1978Martin F
[Animal tuberculosis].Bulletin de l'Academie nationale de medecine · 1986Jacquet J
[Cutaneous tuberculosis].Revue medicale de Liege · 1952CARPENTIER E
[Diagnostic accuracy of three technologies for the diagnosis of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis].Biomedica : revista del Instituto Nacional de Salud · 2017Alvis-Zakzuk NJ, Carrasquilla MLÁ, Gómez VJ et al.DOI: 10.7705/biomedica.v37i3.3437
[Pseudotumor pancreatic tuberculosis].La Tunisie medicale · 2013Ayadi S, Daghfous A, Maghrebi H et al.
[Histopathology of tuberculosis. Approximation to the clinical course of lung lesions in animal experimentation models induced with aerosols].ReviewArchivos de bronconeumologia · 2000Cardona PJ, Ausina VDOI: 10.1016/s0300-2896(15)30087-9
[Paraganglionic tuberculosis].Revue de la tuberculose · 1946BRUN J

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image: Tuberculosis-x-ray-1.jpg
Number of deaths: 1700000

Show 11 more facts

ICPC 2 ID: A70
Commons category: Tuberculosis
number of cases: 10400000
prevalence: 0.000028
exact match: identifiers.org/doid/DOID:399
disease burden: 34200000
minimal incubation period in humans: 3
maximal incubation period in humans: 8
P8168: Sanger
NCI Thesaurus ID: C3423
hashtag: Tuberculosis

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~59 min read

Article

65 sections

Contents

History
Identification
Development of treatments
Drug-resistant tuberculosis
Signs and symptoms
Latent tuberculosis
Pulmonary
Extrapulmonary
Causes
Mycobacteria
Transmission
Risk factors
Close contact
Environmental factors
Immunodeficiencies
Pathogenesis
Diagnosis
Mantoux test
Interferon-Gamma Release Assay
Chest radiograph
Microbiological studies
Other tests
Prevention
Vaccines
Airborne infection control
Hierarchy of controls
Special situations
India: National TB Elimination Programme
End TB Transmission Initiative (ETTi)
Monitoring and evaluation
Public health
Worldwide campaigns
Treatment
Drug susceptible TB
Drug-resistant TB (DR-TB)
Adherence and support
Prognosis
Epidemiology
At-risk groups
Global trends
Geographical epidemiology
India
Indonesia
China
Philippines
Lesotho
Society and culture
Names
Art and literature
Folklore
Law
Stigma
Global programs
Research directions
Diagnostics
Treatment
Vaccines
Other areas of research
Other animals
See also
Notes
References
Sources
Further reading
External links

Tuberculosis is spread from one person to the next through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze. People with latent TB do not spread the disease. A latent infection is more likely to become active in those with weakened immune systems. There are two principal tests for TB: interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) of a blood sample, and the tuberculin skin test.