What is Tuberculosis?

check out this link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH000114...

i also want to add, that the most standard way to screen for TB is called a PPD also known as a tuberuculin skin test. Because I work at a hospital, and am a nursing student, we are required to get a PPD once a year. If a person gets a positive PPD (big red swollen, firm bump where the PPD was injected on the arm) - then the doctor would order a chest XRAY to confirm tb. however, once you have ever tested positive on a PPD, you will test positive for the rest of your life (because the test shows you have the antibodies for it). So a positive PPD does not mean you have TB, but if always had negative ones in the past and now you have a positive, yikes! might mean you have it. so yes a chest xray and a sputum sample (coughed up phlegm sample) is used to confirmed the diagnosis of tb. check out the link for more info

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB (short for tubercle bacillus) is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people who have an active MTB infection cough, sneeze, or otherwise transmit their saliva through the air.Most infections in humans result in an asymptomatic, latent infection, and about one in ten latent infections eventually progress to active disease, which, if left untreated, kills more than 50% of those infected.The classic symptoms are a chronic cough with blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, and weight loss (the last giving rise to the formerly prevalent colloquial term "consumption"). Infection of other organs causes a wide range of symptoms. Diagnosis relies on radiology (commonly chest X-rays), a tuberculin skin test, blood tests, as well as microscopic examination and microbiological culture of bodily fluids. Treatment is difficult and requires long courses of multiple antibiotics. Social contacts are also screened and treated if necessary. Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem in (extensively) multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis. Prevention relies on screening programs and vaccination, usually with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine.

Try and google it : D