Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs but that can attack other parts of the body. There are two forms of TB: TB infection and TB disease. Most people with TB have TB infection.

You certainly can.

An individual is able to spread pulmonary tuberculosis from an assigned date of 3 months prior to symptom onset or a positive lab report. An individual is considered no longer communicable after effective treatment has been demonstrated for greater than or equal to 2 weeks causing a significant reduction in symptoms.

I am not sure how long it will live outside the body, but this does not necessarily matter as many people are carriers.

TB bacteria vary. When exposed to an antibacterial drug, some variants may tolerate it well, while others may not, due to the vagaries of their varying biochemistries. Those that do tolerate it will out-reproduce those that do not, and will tend to become more and more common variants. But further variation is being accumulated all the time. Along comes another drug, and the process repeats itself.

Tuberculosis has been present in humans since antiquity. The earliest unambiguous detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosisis in the remains of bison dated 17,000 years before the present.[53] However, whether tuberculosis originated in cattle and then transferred to humans, or diverged from a common ancestor, is currently unclear.[54] Skeletal remains show prehistoric humans (4000 BC) had TB, and tubercular decay has been found in the spines of mummies from 3000-2400 BC.[55] Phthisis is a Greek term for tuberculosis; around 460 BC, Hippocrates identified phthisis as the most widespread disease of the times involving coughing up blood and fever, which was almost always fatal.[56] Genetic studies suggest that TB was present in South America for about 2,000 years.[57] In South America, the earliest evidence of tuberculosis is associated with the Paracas-Caverna culture.1

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British farmers and successive governments have long believed that bovine TB was being spread by badgers and infecting the national dairy herd, and since the 1970s badgers have been culled by gassing (now ceased) and shooting in attempts to prevent this spread. Tests carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture in the early 1970s showed that TB was more common in badgers than in other species. In the first Badger Act (1973), meant that licenses had to be issued for the killing of badgers. However, there are various other theories concerning the transmission of TB to cattle, and badger culling remains a contentious issue in the UK. Research into the specific mechanisms of how cattle contract bovine TB from badgers and into normal levels of transmission when culling is not practised is scanty.

when he was in the frist school for blind most boys got it

Chest pains, coughing up blood, a prolonged cough for longer than three weeks are common symptoms of pulmonary TB. Systemic symptoms include fevers, chills, loss of appetite, night sweat, weight loss, pallor and fatigue. However, the symptoms may be different if TB has moved from the lungs into other parts of the body, including the central nervous system and the lymphatic system.

Ive read up every where and all it says is no alcohol use, nothing about smoking cigarettes or weed.

Because M.tuberculosis produces urease. thus indicating a person has the bacteria can cause tuberculosis.

Usually an infectious diseases doctor, however, a pulmonologist (lung doctor) may also be involved.

Just like pulmonary tuberculosis, only advanced.

Acid fast bacteria have a waxy coat on their cell wall, and their cell walls contain peptidoglycan. However, neither the crystal violet nor the counterstain (safranin) will penetrate the waxy layer. Therefore they will not be visible. An example of acid-fast bacteria are Mycobacteria. To visualize these bacteria, another staining technique called 'acid-fast staining' would be required.

Since 2001 there has been an approved blood test for TB that has advantages over the skin test, and is recommended by the US Center for Disease Control. Follow the links below for details. It does not require a repeat visit (if negative), and is more reliable in some cases, such as people who have had a TB immunization or multiple TB skin tests. It is called the QuantiFERON®-TB Gold test. Like the skin test, it only tells that a person has been infected with TB germs. It does not tell whether or not the person has progressed to TB disease. Other tests, such as a chest x-ray and a sample of sputum, are needed to see whether the person has TB disease. The test mentioned above tests for TB by detecting the immune response to TB. If a patient is severely ill, there may be TB bacilli in the blood, and a blood culture can be used.

Tuberculosis (TB) is very contagious, and it is spread through the air. This usually occurs when a person who has the disease coughs or sneezes. The reason that coughing or sneezing transmits the disease is that TB bacteria are contained in tiny droplets; once a person who carries the disease begins coughing or sneezing, these bacteria are put into the air, where other people might inhale them.

mostly by fluid contact to infected person. or in case of airborn virus ya .... thought air. on a very close contact

This is a very important question. Refer the text book of pathology for detailed answer. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium which acts in the body of the susceptible host i.e. patient and produces slow cheese (caeous) like inflammatin with increase in lymphocytes, epithelial cells giant cells, in most organs of the body. There are different types of tuberculosis and there are books on each of them.