Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that is caused by bacteria called mycobacteria tuberculosis. It affects the lungs, central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system and the gastrointestinal system. It also affects the bones, joints, and even the skin at times. Symptoms  of tuberculosis  includes a chronic cough, blood in the phlegm, night sweats, fever, and unexplained weight loss. Tuberculosis is spread through the air, when people who are infected cough, spit or sneeze.

Tuberculosis has been around people and animals for at least 18,000 years. Scientists examining the entombed mummies of Egypt have found evidence of the disease in the spine remnants of some of the mummies, proving that these ancients Egyptians suffered from the disease while they were still alive. Scientists have also found strains of tuberculosis in the 18,000 year old remains of bison.

Scientists are not really sure  how tuberculosis has developed over the past millennia and debate whether  it first developed in cattle then spread to people, or if it started out in early humans and then spread to other animals. Tuberculosis was first identified as a contagious disease  by the  doctor Ibn Sina in the early part of the 11th century. Aside from writing “the Canon of Medicine” Sina alos help develop the method of quarantine to help stop the spread of tuberculosis and other contagious diseases. The mystery of the mycobacteria that causes tuberculosis was solved in part because of the work of Nobel award recipient Robert Koch who developed the staining method for microorganisms in 1882.

In order to diagnose tuberculosis, a doctor needs to perform a number of tests including a chest x-ray, tuberculin skin tests, blood tests as well as microscopic examination and microbiological cultures of body fluids. Once diagnosed, tuberculosis is treated with various antibiotics that are taken every day for six months or more. It is a long difficult process to rid someone of the disease making prevention through screening and vaccination the best defense.

Thanks, to a global vaccination effort, scientists once believed that tuberculosis was on its way to becoming completely eradicated. In 1913, for example, the number of tuberculosis cases in Great Britain was at 117,000 while the number dropped to 5,000 in 1987. However, recent trends have shown that tuberculosis is on the rise again with the number cases in Great Britain rising to 6,300 in 2000, then rising again in 2005 to 7,600.

Scientists cite several different causes for the rise of tuberculosis today. In the 1980’s the rise was accredited to the rise in HIV cases. Doctors also pointed to patients not sticking with their treatment regimens as another possible cause and people with tuberculosis entering going back out into public still coughing, spitting and sneezing out strains of the disease into the air. Another reason for the rise of tuberculosis in the new millennium is the development of drug resistant strains which stand up to the antibiotics that are used. These developments have made scientists skeptical as to whether or not it is actually possible to fully eradicate this disease form humankind.

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