Tuberculosis. Factors That Determine the Infectiousness of a Tuberculosis Patient

Tuberculosis
Author Name
Institution Affiliation
M. tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) is a particular species of pathogenic bacteria that belongs to the family Mycobacteriaceae. Robert Koch discovered the species in 1882 and claimed that it was having a waxy coating on the cell surface because of the excess of mycolic acid. Today, different fluorescent stains and acid-fast stains are used to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis under the microscope. According to Pascale Perrin, the physiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis requires a high level of oxygen (Perrin, 2015). It means the species cannot survive for long if sufficient oxygen is not present, and this is why it is widely regarded aerobic. Different methods or diagnostic techniques are used to identify tuberculosis, such as skin test, polymerase chain reaction, acid-fast stain, and tissue culture.
Factors That Determine the Infectiousness of a Tuberculosis (TB) Patient
The infectiousness of TB patients has a direct association with the number of droplet nuclei carrying tubercle bacilli or M. tuberculosis. Some of the most important factors that determine the infectiousness of a TB patient are severe and long term cough, mucus, a cavity in the lungs and acid-fast bacilli on sputum smear. In some situations, patients complained about not being able to cover their nose and mouth because of consistent cough. This happens with people who do not receive proper treatment or have a prolonged illness. In such a situation, they undergo a variety of cough-inducing procedures and are considered noninfectious if they have three to four consecutive negative AFB sputum smears collected in eight to twenty-hour interval.
Main Goals of a TB Infection Control Program
The first and one of the most important goals is to prevent doctors, nurses and other staff members, along with patients’ families and relatives from the illness (Dye, 2015). A TB infection control program basically aims to make people understand how to avoid being exposed to the infection and how to reduce its transmission with rapid diagnosis and treatment. The staff is frequently diagnosed with TB6. Another goal of the program is to provide packages of prevention and care interventions for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Three Different Levels of an Effective TB Infection Control Program
An effective TB infection control program should consist of three core elements.
1 Identifying and strengthening the local coordinating bodies for infection control. This is followed by the development of an effective care plan.
2 Planning h...