Tuberculosis is an infectious diseases mainly caused by the bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Tuberculosis affects the lungs and it is spread through the air when individuals with the disease sneeze, spit, or cough (Fogel, 2015).
Tuberculosis disease process include three stages. The initial stage referred to as the primary infection, the dormant stage called the latent infection, and the post primary stage referred to as the recrudescent disease. The first stage is where the mycobacteria bacteria enters the lungs and multiply within a period of three weeks, forming a small inflammatory lesion in the lung. They later travel to form more lesions in the regional lymph nodes and in the entire body. In the second stage, the antibodies and lymphocytes responds to the invasion by covering the lesions thereby forming non caseating granulomas. The third stage is when the body is not able to maintain the resistance thus the cavitation and necrotic process starts in the lesion. Caseation takes place and the lesions may rupture thereby spreading the necrotic bacilli and residue in the surrounding tissue, which may lead to exacerbations if not treated (Salgame et al., 2015).
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In assessing a patient with tuberculosis, the health professional will evaluate the pulmonary TB disease by conducting a chest radiograph. In addition, the health professional will collect the samples such as sputum and culture the TB bacterium. This helps to determine the diagnosis and monitor the response to treatment. If the presence of the mycobacterium tuberculosis is detected in the sample, then an individual is infected ( Goyal, Sheikh, Agarwal & Verma, 2017).
The TB services staff can work in collaboration with health care providers and local health department to investigate the disease. For instance, they work together to identify the onset date and symptoms of the illness, review the results of the laboratory tests and may recommend for another test to be conducted to confirm the diagnosis, and ensure a proper treatment plan is put in place. This step helps in the effective management client care and thus would help to address the potential complications that may arise in the patient ( Zhang, Niu, Fu & Peng, 2018).
References
Fogel, N. (2015). Tuberculosis: a disease without boundaries. Tuberculosis , 95 (5), 527-531.
Goyal, B., Sheikh, J. A., Agarwal, R., & Verma, I. (2017). Levels of circulating immune complexes containing Mycobacterium Tuberculosis-specific antigens in pulmonary tuberculosis and sarcoidosis patients. Indian journal of medical microbiology , 35 (2), 290.
Salgame, P., Geadas, C., Collins, L., Jones-López, E., & Ellner, J. J. (2015). Latent tuberculosis infection revisiting and revising concepts. Tuberculosis , 95 (4), 373-384.
Zhang, W., Niu, C., Fu, R. Y., & Peng, Z. Y. (2018). Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv infection regulates alternative splicing in Macrophages. Bioengineered , 9 (1), 203-208.
