Tuberculosis

Hello friends,

I am Dr Nikhil Modi I am a consultant respiratory medicine in Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi. Today I will be talking about tuberculosis, as you know tuberculosis is one of the important diseases which we come across especially in a country like India. Tuberculosis what do we know about it, it is actually a disease which is caused by bacteria called microbacterium tuberculosis. It is a slow-growing bacteria hence symptoms of tuberculosis noted are very shuttle and slow to progress. How do we come to know that we have to get workout for tuberculosis? It is important to work upstart as early as possible because controlling the disease is possible if proper treatment is started. So what will be the symptoms which you will come across when you suffer from tuberculosis? Tuberculosis firstly can involve any part of the body, but most commonly it involves our lungs and the lining over the lungs, it is called as pulmonary tuberculosis. So the most common symptoms which we come across are cough which may be dry or sometimes we may have some sputum along with it, also one of the important features which is seen is presence of blood in sputum. So if anytime sputum is having blood you should get alarm and immediately consultant a specialist. Cough is usually caused by most of the allergic symptoms or other infections, so how do we differentiate, it is actually not easily differentiable from other cough but if your cough is persisting for more than 2 weeks then our work up of tuberculosis becomes important. So if you have a long-term cough you are Hemoptysis then always consult a specialist and go for the work up for tuberculosis. Secondly presence of low grade fever which may persist, if you are having weight loss, your appetite is reduce for a long time all this can be symptoms of tuberculosis. So in all these cases, a workup for tuberculosis becomes a must so at that point in time you need to consult a specialist. And it is easy to treat tuberculosis, if it is identified and drugs are good but the treatment is at least for a period of 6 months, which you have to take regularly otherwise tuberculosis may become resistant, the bacteria may become resistant and then it is difficult to treat it is called as MDR tuberculosis but now we have a treatment for that but the treatment may continue for two and a half years and it requires constant monitoring. There can be side effects from the drugs, but if you are in a proper supervision then that side effect can be minimised and the disease can we cured hundred percent. So any symptoms which may point out toward tuberculosis you should not ignore and consult a specialist as soon as possible. This is the basic crux about tuberculosis and I want to just say ki just be ready for it and it can be treated easily.

For any queries for my point of view if you want to ask you can visit me at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi or you can contact me online on Lybrate platform.

Thank you.