Tuberculosis continues to be a major health threat and is a serious re-emerging bacteri illness found world wide. Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) (Salyers and Whitt 2000). TB is spread from person to person through the air. In order for someone to become infected, the person needs to be exposed for a long period of time in an environment containing many TB bacteria (Tuberculosis 2007). There are two forms of TB; one is TB infection and the second is TB disease. Patients who have TB infection have no symptoms and cannot spread TB to others. On the othere hand, patients with TB disease have symptoms and can spread TB to others (Tuberculosis Statistics). Preventing the spread of TB involves keeping patients with TB infection from getting TB disease, treating patients with TB disease and implementing precaustions in institution environments to reduce the risk of TB transmission. TB is a disease of poverty, affecting mainly young adults in ther reproductive years(PubMed 2006). TB affects the most vulnerable such as individuals who are the poorest and malnoursihed. Thus, making it difficult for those who are infected to recieve adequate health care due to poor economic status(third world countries). Leading to poor health care and increasing the rate of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) (Global Burden 2008). MDR-TB is currently present in 109 countries according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. In 1993, WHO declared tuberculosis as a global emergency. Tuberculosis most commonly attacks the lungs but can also affect the cental nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitorinary system, bones, joints and the skin (Tuberculosis 2006). New infections occur at the rate of one per second (Tuberculosis Statistics 2008).
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