BIO 245X
7/16/18
Noah Delaney-Manuel
Artifact6: Tuberculosis
With infectious diseases being such a prominent topic of discussion in this class, I have seen many diseases that can be very infectious, yet in a sense harmless to humans. When it comes to tuberculosis, that is not the case. Although it is indeed very infectious, it also was very deadly in its arrival into mankind. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. This disease affects patients in many different ways. The most prominent way it affects people is through the lungs. However, there have also been many cases where patients have tuberculosis in their kidneys, bones, lymph nodes, and brain. Since this disease can affect so many parts of the body, it is part of the reason this disease was so deadly in the early 19thcentury. Like mentioned before in this paper, TB is a bacterial infection which means it can be transmitted from person to person. The most common way for this disease to be passed on is through the respiratory system. When a infected person exhales or sneezes into the air and an un-infected person inhales these droplets, they now have contracted the horrible infection of tuberculosis.
During the immigration to the U.S. in the 19thcentury, TB found itself infecting many people. Although the infection was most prominent in poor regions, it also affected the rich sometimes because it was an airborne infection. The reason that the poor were the main economic group that was affected by this infection was the same reason the poor is always most affected; poor living standards and poor health-care access. From the slums and ghettos brought a habitat that was hospitable to the bacteria which caused TB, creating an epidemic which became very deadly. Tuberculosis was eventually called the white death, as opposed to the black death which harbored the largest death toll to any disease known to man. Although Tb came to the knowledge of the American public in the 19thcentury, TB has records as far back as ancient Egypt over 5000 years ago. This lets us know one thing about this disease, it has been adapting and overcoming for thousands of years to remain a problem to all human beings.
Today, it is found that people who have HIV or AIDS have a higher chance of contracting TB. This is due to the fact that both of those diseases weaken a person’s immune system which is part of the fighting force that kicks the infection from the body. Even in the society that we live in today however, TB is not an infection that a person should try to “tough it out” and fight it without proper treatment. Untreated or undiagnosed TB can lead to serious ailments and even death. When it comes to treating TB, there is a series of drugs which patients must follow in order to be clear of the infection. Since TB is a bacterial infection, it is a living organism. Having said that, if a patient takes the medicine and is not paying attention to the procedure of how to take the medicine, or even chooses to stop too soon, they may make the bacteria that still survive to become resistant. Any disease that is resistant to drugs is more dangerous because then it truly up to that person’s immune system, and sheer luck to overcome the disease.
Help Received: PowerPoint slides
Noah Delaney-Manuel