# data[].attributes.body
Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes.

Once rare in developed countries, tuberculosis infections began increasing in 1985, partly because of the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens a person's immune system so it can't fight the TB germs. In the United States, because of stronger control programs, tuberculosis began to decrease again in 1993, but remains a concern.

Many strains of tuberculosis resist the drugs most used to treat the disease. People with active tuberculosis must take several types of medications for many months to eradicate the infection and prevent development of antibiotic resistance.

# data[].attributes.body
Although your body may harbor the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), your immune system usually can prevent you from becoming sick. For this reason, doctors make a distinction between:

Latent TB. In this condition, you have a TB infection, but the bacteria remain in your body in an inactive state and cause no symptoms. Latent TB, also called inactive TB or TB infection, isn't contagious. It can turn into active TB, so treatment is important for the person with latent TB and to help control the spread of TB. An estimated 2 billion people have latent TB.

Active TB. This condition makes you sick and in most cases can spread to others. It can occur in the first few weeks after infection with the TB bacteria, or it might occur years later.

Signs and symptoms of active TB include:

Coughing that lasts three or more weeks

Coughing up blood

Chest pain, or pain with breathing or coughing

Unintentional weight loss

Fatigue

Fever

Night sweats

Chills

Loss of appetite

Tuberculosis can also affect other parts of your body, including your kidneys, spine or brain. When TB occurs outside your lungs, signs and symptoms vary according to the organs involved. For example, tuberculosis of the spine may give you back pain, and tuberculosis in your kidneys might cause blood in your urine.

# data[].attributes.body
Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air. This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings.

Although tuberculosis is contagious, it's not easy to catch. You're much more likely to get tuberculosis from someone you live with or work with than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who've had appropriate drug treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.

HIV and TB
Since the 1980s, the number of cases of tuberculosis has increased dramatically because of the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Infection with HIV suppresses the immune system, making it difficult for the body to control TB bacteria. As a result, people with HIV are many times more likely to get TB and to progress from latent to active disease than are people who aren't HIV positive.

# data[].attributes.body
During the physical exam, your doctor will check your lymph nodes for swelling and use a stethoscope to listen carefully to the sounds your lungs make while you breathe.

The most commonly used diagnostic tool for tuberculosis is a simple skin test, though blood tests are becoming more commonplace. A small amount of a substance called PPD tuberculin is injected just below the skin of your inside forearm. You should feel only a slight needle prick.

Within 48 to 72 hours, a health care professional will check your arm for swelling at the injection site. A hard, raised red bump means you're likely to have TB infection. The size of the bump determines whether the test results are significant.

Results can be wrong
The TB skin test isn't perfect. Sometimes, it suggests that people have TB when they really don't. It can also indicate that people don't have TB when they really do.

A false-positive test may happen if you've been vaccinated recently with the bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. This tuberculosis vaccine is seldom used in the United States but is widely used in countries with high TB infection rates.

False-negative results may occur in certain populations — including children, older people and people with AIDS — who sometimes don't respond to the TB skin test. A false-negative result can also occur in people who've recently been infected with TB, but whose immune systems haven't yet reacted to the bacteria.

Blood tests
Blood tests may be used to confirm or rule out latent or active tuberculosis. These tests use sophisticated technology to measure your immune system's reaction to TB bacteria.

These tests require only one office visit. A blood test may be useful if you're at high risk of TB infection but have a negative response to the skin test, or if you've recently received the BCG vaccine.

Imaging tests
If you've had a positive skin test, your doctor is likely to order a chest X-ray or a CT scan. This may show white spots in your lungs where your immune system has walled off TB bacteria, or it may reveal changes in your lungs caused by active tuberculosis. CT scans provide more-detailed images than do X-rays.

Sputum tests
If your chest X-ray shows signs of tuberculosis, your doctor may take samples of your sputum — the mucus that comes up when you cough. The samples are tested for TB bacteria.

Sputum samples can also be used to test for drug-resistant strains of TB. This helps your doctor choose the medications that are most likely to work. These tests can take four to eight weeks to be completed.

# data[].attributes.body
If you test positive for latent TB infection, your doctor may advise you to take medications to reduce your risk of developing active tuberculosis. The only type of tuberculosis that is contagious is the active variety, when it affects the lungs. So if you can prevent your latent tuberculosis from becoming active, you won't transmit tuberculosis to anyone else.

Protect your family and friends
If you have active TB, keep your germs to yourself. It generally takes a few weeks of treatment with TB medications before you're not contagious anymore. Follow these tips to help keep your friends and family from getting sick:

Stay home. Don't go to work or school or sleep in a room with other people during the first few weeks of treatment for active tuberculosis.
Ventilate the room. Tuberculosis germs spread more easily in small closed spaces where air doesn't move. If it's not too cold outdoors, open the windows and use a fan to blow indoor air outside.
Cover your mouth. Use a tissue to cover your mouth anytime you laugh, sneeze or cough. Put the dirty tissue in a bag, seal it and throw it away.
Wear a mask. Wearing a surgical mask when you're around other people during the first three weeks of treatment may help lessen the risk of transmission.
Finish your entire course of medication
This is the most important step you can take to protect yourself and others from tuberculosis. When you stop treatment early or skip doses, TB bacteria have a chance to develop mutations that allow them to survive the most potent TB drugs. The resulting drug-resistant strains are much more deadly and difficult to treat.

Vaccinations
In countries where tuberculosis is more common, infants often are vaccinated with bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine because it can prevent severe tuberculosis in children. The BCG vaccine isn't recommended for general use in the United States because it isn't very effective in adults. Dozens of new TB vaccines are in various stages of development and testing.

# data[].attributes.body
Anyone can get tuberculosis, but certain factors can increase your risk of the disease. These factors include:

Weakened immune system
A healthy immune system often successfully fights TB bacteria, but your body can't mount an effective defense if your resistance is low. A number of diseases, conditions and medications can weaken your immune system, including:

HIV/AIDS
Diabetes
Severe kidney disease
Certain cancers
Cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy
Drugs to prevent rejection of transplanted organs
Some drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and psoriasis
Malnutrition
Very young or advanced age
Traveling or living in certain areas
The risk of contracting tuberculosis is higher for people who live in or travel to areas that have high rates of tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis, including:

Africa
Eastern Europe
Asia
Russia
Latin America
Caribbean Islands
Poverty and substance use
Lack of medical care. If you receive a low or fixed income, live in a remote area, have recently immigrated to the United States, or are homeless, you may lack access to the medical care needed to diagnose and treat TB.
Substance use. Use of IV drugs or excessive alcohol weakens your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to tuberculosis.
Tobacco use. Using tobacco greatly increases the risk of getting TB and dying of it.
Where you work or live
Health care work. Regular contact with people who are ill increases your chances of exposure to TB bacteria. Wearing a mask and frequent hand-washing greatly reduce your risk.
Living or working in a residential care facility. People who live or work in prisons, homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals or nursing homes are all at a higher risk of tuberculosis. That's because the risk of the disease is higher anywhere there is overcrowding and poor ventilation.
Living in or emigrating from a country where TB is common. People from a country where TB is common may be at high risk of tuberculosis infection.
Living with someone infected with TB. Living with someone who has TB increases your risk.

# data[].attributes.body
There was no reliable treatment for tuberculosis. Some physicians prescribed bleedings and purgings, but most often, doctors simply advised their patients to rest, eat well, and exercise outdoors.[1] Very few recovered. Those who survived their first bout with the disease were haunted by severe recurrences that destroyed any hope for an active life. They opened sanitariums and would have sun porches for patients to rest on because they believed fresh air and sunlight would help cure them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Diagnosing Tuberculosis in Early 19th and 20th century

# data[].attributes.subject
Diagnosing Tuberculosis in Early 19th and 20th century

# data[].attributes.body
Formerly called “consumption,” tuberculosis is characterized externally by fatigue, night sweats, and a general “wasting away” of the victim. Typically but not exclusively a disease of the lungs, TB is also marked by a persistent coughing-up of thick white phlegm, sometimes blood. They had very little to go off of other than symptoms. Late 19th century they were able to do chest xrays.

# data[].attributes.body
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tuberculosis (TB) was the leading cause of death in the United States, and one of the most feared diseases in the world.

# data[].attributes.body
Medications are the cornerstone of tuberculosis treatment. But treating TB takes much longer than treating other types of bacterial infections.

For active tuberculosis, you must take antibiotics for at least six to nine months. The exact drugs and length of treatment depend on your age, overall health, possible drug resistance and the infection's location in the body.

Most common TB drugs
If you have latent tuberculosis, you may need to take only one or two types of TB drug. Active tuberculosis, particularly if it's a drug-resistant strain, will require several drugs at once. The most common medications used to treat tuberculosis include:

Isoniazid
Rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane)
Ethambutol (Myambutol)
Pyrazinamide
If you have drug-resistant TB, a combination of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones and injectable medications, such as amikacin or capreomycin (Capastat), are generally used for 20 to 30 months. Some types of TB are developing resistance to these medications as well.

Some drugs may be used as add-on therapy to the current drug-resistant combination treatment, including:

Bedaquiline (Sirturo)
Linezolid (Zyvox)