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Pathogens
Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Precautions

Airborne Precautions (N95 + Negative Pressure Room)

Susceptibilities

General susceptibility
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General Information

  • Aerobic acid-fast bacillus.
  • Poor Gram staining due to mycolic acids in cell wall, but occasionally shows as Gram-positive.

Naturally found in tissues of humans. Unable to replicate in inanimate environment.

Global distribution, with higher prevalence in lower-resourced countries. Transmitted by aerosol inhalation of infected droplet nuclei. More than 20% of the global population has latent/asymptomatic infection.

Pulmonary:

  • Cavitating pneumonia
  • Upper lobe pneumonia
  • Miliary disease

Extrapulmonary:

  • Lymph node infection
  • Pleural infection
  • Central nervous system infection
  • Pericardial infection
  • Osteomyelitis (Pott's disease)
  • Peritoneal infection
  • Renal infection
  • Symetric polyarthritis (Poncet's disease)