Tuberculosis Cause

Tuberculosis mainly caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Most of tuberculosis patients are get their illness from another patient. The tuberculosis bacteria spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air. It can happen if someone with tuberculosis coughs, speaks or sneezes. Rarely, a pregnant woman with active TB may pass the bacteria to her unborn child.

Although tuberculosis is contagious, it's not especially easy to catch. You're much more likely to get tuberculosis from a family member or close co-worker than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who've had appropriate drug treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.

Even though you breathe tuberculosis bacteria into your lungs from someone else, you may not infected with tuberculosis. It may happen if your immune system immediately destroys the germs and clears them from your body. You develop latent tuberculosis infection, it will happen when the bacteria are settle in your lungs and begin to multiply. In few weeks your immune system successfully "walls off" the bacteria in your lungs, much like a scab forming over a wound. The bacteria may remain within these walls for years alive, but in a dormant state. In this case, you're considered to have tuberculosis infection and you'll test positive on a tuberculosis skin test. But you won't have symptoms and won't transmit the disease to others.

If you have a weak immune system, you will develop active tuberculosis. TB bacteria begin to attack your immune system cell and then it move into the airways in your lungs, causing large air spaces to form. When these spaces filled with oxygen, it become an ideal breeding ground for tuberculosis bacteria. The bacteria may then spread from the cavities to the rest of your lungs as well as to other parts of your body.If you have active TB, you're likely to feel sick. Even if you don't feel sick, you can still infect others. Without treatment, many people with active TB die. Those who survive may develop long-term symptoms, such as chest pain and a cough with bloody sputum, or they may recover and go into remission.

But only about 10% of all TB infection goes on to develop active TB. The risk is greatest in the first two years after infection and is much higher if you have HIV infection.

Main Article: Tuberculosis