Tuberculosis: Causes, Transmission, Symptoms, and Treatment Options

This report provides a comprehensive overview of Tuberculosis (TB), a communicable disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It discusses the causes, mode of transmission via airborne droplets, and symptoms, including persistent cough, weight loss, fever, and chest pain. The report highlights the importance of antibiotic treatment, including Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), and addresses complications such as organ damage. It also examines the demographics most affected, particularly in developing countries, and the social determinants of health, such as poverty and malnutrition, that contribute to the spread of TB. Furthermore, the report explores the epidemiologic triad (host, agent, environment) and emphasizes the critical role of public health nurses in patient care, education, and disease management, particularly in administering DOT to ensure timely and accurate medication. The report concludes by stressing the importance of addressing social determinants and providing strategic support to healthcare professionals for effective TB prevention and control. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments for students.

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Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a communicable or infectious disease which is caused by a single
pathogenic bacteria and as per the World Health Organisation or WHO (2018), is one of the life-
threatening disease around the world. As per the report provided by WHO, more than 10 million
people were affected with tuberculosis in the year 2017, within which 1.6 million people died
(WHO, 2018). The causes, mode of transmission, symptoms, treatment and complications of this
disease are as follows.
Cause
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the pathogenic bacteria which causes active tuberculosis
and it spreads through air when an infected individual coughs, sneezes, spits or talks. It has been
determined that the probability of acquiring tuberculosis from a stranger is lower than a known
person (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). This is because a longer incubation
period is required to develop the symptoms of tuberculosis and hence a close contact with active
TB carrier is required to develop the disease condition (Medical News Today, 2018).
Mode of transmission
Droplet nuclei generated from an infected person is the primary reason that leads to
tuberculosis in susceptible person. Airborne droplets exhaled by infected individual carries the
pathogenic bacteria and transmitted to people who are susceptible to it (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 2019). It is evident through researches that the air-droplets released from
the infected individual are virulent for 4 to 5 hours however, the infection does not spread
through Surface contact (Medical News Today, 2018).

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Symptoms and complications
Tuberculosis can be present within the host body in both active and latent phase, however
in latent phase no symptoms of the disease are developed. In the active phase, the symptoms are:
 Cough, that lasts more than a month
 extreme weight loss and loss of appetite
 fever with high chills and sweating at night
 chest heaviness and pain with fatigue
 coughing with blood or sputum (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2019)
The sever complication of untreated tuberculosis could be seen through the report of
Who as more than 1.6 million people died in 2017 from tuberculosis in both developed and
developing nations. On the other hand, besides lungs, the TB bacteria can colonize in bones,
brain, kidney, heart and lever causing meningitis, kidney or liver disorder as well as visual
impairment (Medical News Today, 2018).
Treatment
Tuberculosis could be treated if specific antibiotic is provided to the patient for a
prescribed length of time for complete removal of infectious load of pathogen (Horsburgh Jr,
Barry III & Lange, 2013). Further, latent phase of tuberculosis requires one type of antibiotic,
whereas the active infection requires multiple antibiotics which need to be consumed in an
immediate manner so that the combined effect could be used for infection control and removal.
Generally a Directly Observed Therapy or DOT is used to provide timely and accurate treatment
to the affected individuals (Wallis et al., 2016).

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Demographics affected with tuberculosis
As per the reports collected from WHO, it was determined that developing countries
struggling from hunger, sanitation and poverty are the primary high burden countries within
which, higher rates of TB infections were reported. The countries mostly affected with
tuberculosis Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Philippines China and India. Besides this,
majority of the mortality and morbidity incidences were reported in these countries (WHO,
2018).
Social determinants of health affecting Tuberculosis
Poverty, malnutrition, education and lack of healthcare are the social determinants
affecting tuberculosis and its occurrence. Poor ventilation, crowded places and working
environment increases the direct risk of tuberculosis and in most of the cases is associated with
active tuberculosis (Wu & Dalal, 2012). Whereas, malnutrition, weakens the body immune
system, making majority of the people susceptible to the disease. Further, lack of education and
healthcare knowledge increases the risk of disease progression and transmission, leading to
outbreak of such diseases within communities. Therefore, it is important for the healthcare
policies to improve these social determinants so that the disease condition could also be treated
and addressed (Raviglione & Sulis, 2016).
Epidemiologic triad of Tuberculosis
The epidemiologic triad of tuberculosis is consists of Host, Environment and the agent
related to the disease and the interaction between them within a specific dimension of time.
Within this, the agent is the necessary factor for development of the disease hence are termed as

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causative factors, risk factors or environmental exposures leading to the infection (Sitienei,
Nyambati & Borus, 2013).
Whereas the host is the medium through which the virulence pathogen develops and
divides and transmitted within a closed or nearby environment. The transmission of the disease
depends on the characteristic of the place, as well as the physical, psychosocial, and biological
characteristic of the place. However, within this triad, time palsy an important role as the
duration of incubation, duration of transmission and the trends of cycle determines the pace and
duration of disease transmission (Wu & Dalal, 2012).
Role of the public health nurse
As per the World Health Organization (2018), there are plenty of responsibilities which
should be given to the healthcare professionals, especially the nurses as are able to conduct
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patient care and health education simultaneously. Further, they should be able to collect sputum
samples, managing the disease, conduct research and teaching sessions and screening of the
patients so that identification of the disease and its prevention becomes easier (Maurer & Smith,
2013). However, to make them achieve these social targets regarding the disease identification,
management and awareness, they should be provided with strategic level representation,
available research evidences and proper training and educational materials so that they can reach
out to the people with complete determination (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015). Further, in
developing countries, where the patients are unable to understand the method of medication
administration, these nursing professionals conduct the DOT therapy through which all the
patients are provided with timely and accurate medication for health improvement (Zelnick et al.,
2013).
Majority of the countries affected with tuberculosis conduct DOT campaign to provide
people affected with tuberculosis an accurate and timely treatment and medication administration
(Zelnick et al., 2013). It was done so that people who are unaware of the adverse nature of the
disease, the consequences of not consuming timely medications and preventive measures could
be protected for their health improvement as well as to protect the community or environment
they are living in. Hence, as per Stanhope and Lancaster (2015), nursing professionals play an
important role in preventing the disease from affecting an entire community.

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References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). TB Symptoms & Risk Factors. Retrieved
from https://www.cdc.gov/features/tbsymptoms/index.html
Horsburgh Jr, C. R., Barry III, C. E., & Lange, C. (2015). Treatment of tuberculosis. New
England Journal of Medicine, 373(22), 2149-2160.
Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2013). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for
families and populations. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Medical News Today. (2018). Tuberculosis: Causes, symptoms, and treatments. Retrieved from
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8856.php
Raviglione, M., & Sulis, G. (2016). Tuberculosis 2015: burden, challenges and strategy for
control and elimination. Infectious disease reports, 8(2).
Sitienei, J., Nyambati, V., & Borus, P. (2013). The epidemiology of smear positive tuberculosis
in three TB/HIV high burden provinces of Kenya (2003–2009). Epidemiology Research
International, 2013.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2015). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in
the community. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Wallis, R. S., Maeurer, M., Mwaba, P., Chakaya, J., Rustomjee, R., Migliori, G. B., ... &
Hoelscher, M. (2016). Tuberculosis—advances in development of new drugs, treatment

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regimens, host-directed therapies, and biomarkers. The Lancet infectious diseases, 16(4),
e34-e46.
WHO. (2018). Tuberculosis (TB). Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis
Wu, J., & Dalal, K. (2012). Tuberculosis in Asia and the pacific: the role of socioeconomic status
and health system development. International journal of preventive medicine, 3(1), 8.
Zelnick, J. R., Gibbs, A., Loveday, M., Padayatchi, N., & O'donnell, M. R. (2013). Health-care
workers’ perspectives on workplace safety, infection control, and drug-resistant
tuberculosis in a high-burden HIV setting. Journal of public health policy, 34(3), 388-
402.