Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Mycobacterium tuberculosis


Hello, I'm M. tuberculosis.
I'm called an 'acid fast' bacteria because of my waxy cell walls.
On a special stain called a Ziehl-Neelsen stain, I look red.
I cause tuberculosis, infecting lots of people all over the world.

I get inhaled into your lungs and cause primary TB, which most people don't even notice.
Your immune system keeps me dormant so I wait for years until it gets weak.
That's when I kick in!! I give you cough, weight loss, fever, night sweats, and tiredness.
Your lungs become like a block of cheese, full of holes.

From there I spread to the lymph nodes and infect all over your body.
In the spine, I'm called Pott's disease.
In miliary TB I send tiny bits out to infect lots and lots of organs.

3 comments:

Catnapping said...

eyup. and nowadays, cuz of years and years of antibiotic abuse and misuse, there are strains of TB that have evolved to resist treatment.

Unknown said...

yup..
Antibiotic abuse is all over !
only 4 antibotics are used to ttt TB ..

Eventhough , they are prescribed for the most trivial reasons :S !

Thanks Emma .

Miss B said...

I'll adopt you Mtb. I'll keep you nice and warm. I'll feed you chicken soup and little white and red and blue pills!