Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that primarily affects your lungs. Tuberculosis is spread from person to person through tiny droplets released into the air.
 In general, you need prolonged exposure to an infected person before becoming infected yourself. Even then, you may not develop symptoms of the disease. Or, symptoms may not show up until many years later.
Left untreated, tuberculosis can be fatal. With proper care, however, most cases of tuberculosis can be treated, even those resistant to the drugs commonly used against the disease.p>
 Tuberculosis is caused by an organism called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air. This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings. Any person who inhales these droplets can become infected with TB.
Although tuberculosis is contagious, it's not especially easy to catch. In general, you need long-term contact with an infected person to become infected yourself. You're much more likely to contract tuberculosis from a family member or close co-worker than from a stranger on a bus or in a restaurant. A person with nonresistant active TB who's been effectively treated for at least two weeks is generally no longer contagious. Rarely, a pregnant woman with an active TB disease may pass the bacteria to her fetus.
Other contributing factors:
- Crowded living conditions
- Increased poverty and lack of access to medical care
- Increase travel
- Increase in drug-resistant strains of TB
 Signs and symptoms of active TB include:
- Unexplained weight loss
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Night Colds
- Chills
- Lost of Appetite
- Coughing that lasts three or more weeks
- Coughing up blood
- Chest pain, or pain with breathing or coughing
Tuberculosis also can target almost any part of your body, including your joints, bones, urinary tract, central nervous system, muscles, bone marrow and lymphatic system.
 The best way to prevent the spread of tuberculosis is to treat and care for all patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis. The vaccination for TB known as BCG may prevent children from developing the most severe forms of TB.
Measures you can take on your own to help you protect yourself and others:
- Keep your immune system healthy
- Get tested regularly, consider preventive therapy
- Finish your entire course of medications.
To help keep your family and friends from getting sick if you have active TB:
- Stay at home,
- Ensure adequate ventilation and cover your cough.
 Tuberculosis is a curable disease. Patients are prescribed with appropriate regimen to render them non-infectious and cured, as early as possible. Persons with TB can be cured
through regular and complete intake of the prescribed anti TB medications for a long period of time (about 6 months).
Compliance to the treatment regimen is very important to treat the disease & prevent the bacteria from becoming resistant to the antibiotics
Because patients frequently stop taking their medications before completing treatment, the
Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy is
recommended – health care workers directly observe the patient while
taking the medication. It is a comprehensive strategy endorsed by
the World Health Organization (WHO) and International.
DOTS services are available in the rural health units, city health units, city health centers and government hospitals around the country. Currently, there are also private facilities that are offering DOTS services to their clients.
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