BIOS 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Contact Tracing, Sputum

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Document Summary

The unpublished tb outbreak chapter by dr. ricks. Mycobacterium tuberculosis: usually attacks lungs but can attack any part of body (kidney, spine, brain) Spread person to person via respiratory droplets when a tb infected person coughs, sneezes, or sings. Children under age of 5 not considered to be infectious; logic is that they are not capable of coughing strongly enough to expel the mycobacterium from lungs. If infected, 90-95% of people w/healthy immune system will not develop active disease (called latent tb infection = infected but no symptoms and not infectious) If develops to active disease (typically w/in 2 years) and goes untreated, 50% of tb patients with active disease will die within 5 years (called active tb = person has symptoms and is infectious) Main symptoms: cough that last 3 weeks or longer, pain in chest, coughing up blood or sputum. Others: weakness, fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, chills, fever, night sweats.