Mysteries of Pathology

One in three people around the world have the tuberculosis bacteria already within their body. If you meet and talk with a hundred people in one day, at least thirty-three have TB within them. Fortunately, tuberculosis is not contagious until one contracts the symptoms: coughing, weight loss, fatigue, fever, night sweats, chills, and loss of appetite. Until then, we call this dormant bacteria Latent TB. Once it becomes “active”, usually when our immune system plummets for one reason or another, the mycobacterium tuberculosis will attack our body. In America, we are blessed to have several resources at our disposal to fight this disease. In third world countries, however, resources are rare, and thus tuberculosis takes on a new form. It becomes resistant to many drugs as the bacteria becomes more resilient. Because of this, tuberculosis can no longer be called an epidemic of the past, with recent uncontained outbreaks, unregulated treatments, reports of further mutations, the neglect ...