Question

Tuberculosis is caused by________.

Answer 1

As we are familiar that Tuberculosis is an infectious disease and it spreads to the healthy person when an infected person sneezes or coughs. It is a bacterial disease which mainly affects the lungs. Tuberculosis is a disease which causes coughing along with blood in sputum.

Complete answer:
- Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease caused by the microorganism called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacteria is non-motile and it belongs to the sub group of Eubacteria i.e. Actinomycetes.
- Tuberculosis is a chronic disease and Active pulmonary tuberculosis is symptomatic and infectious. Its symptoms are; Chest pain, continuous fever, blood in sputum or cough, weight loss, loss of appetite, fatigue, etc.
- There are two types of tuberculosis 1) Pulmonary Tuberculosis- in this type only lungs are affected and 2) Extra pulmonary Tuberculosis- in this type it spreads to different body parts along with the lungs.
- Extra pulmonary tuberculosis is very rarely found or in people with low immunity. Pulmonary tuberculosis is further divided into two more types i.e. Active Tuberculosis- in this type bacteria are actively divided into the body of the host and Latent Tuberculosis- in this type due to strong immune system bacteria are not able to flourish into the body of the host.
- Tuberculosis can be determined by Tuberculin test, Sputum test, and X-ray.
- In the tuberculin test old tuberculin is injected in a small amount into the skin and after 72 hours some redness or scars are observed then the person is stated as suffering from TB.
- In a sputum test the patient’s sputum is tested.
- In X-ray, by taking the X-ray of the chest TB can be diagnosed.
- Thus TB is caused by the bacteria: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.

Note: Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and leprosy is caused by Mycobacterium leprae. TB causing bacteria are also called filamentous bacteria i.e. actinomycetes. If TB is left untreated then it can lead to death. Generally pulmonary tuberculosis is diagnosed by Tuberculin test.