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Identify the symptoms of tuberculosis
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San José, Costa Rica. May, 2015.
Tuberculosis may attack any person regardless of gender or age. However, those most affected are men with ages between 25 and 34 years-old. The main symptoms are cough with blood, loss of appetite, loss of weight, fever, night sweating and, in some cases, respiratory insufficiency.
“This is an infectious disease, the treatment of which is long and somewhat complex. Like many diseases, it can be prevented, but it depends above all on the attitude of the sick person,” said Dr. Andres Roman, general physician of the Clinica Biblica Hospital.
Tuberculosis mainly affects the lungs and is primarily transmitted by airborne bacteria, when a healthy person inhales microscopic drops of saliva of the patient, which are generated when he/she coughs or sneezes. There is also the extra pulmonary tuberculosis which presents signs and symptoms proper of the affected organ.
In many cases, the first stages of the disease develop without symptoms. In more advanced stages, the symptoms are pretty unspecific, also, chest pain due to the pressure that the pulmonary infection produces, fatigue and weariness.
When the bacteria begin to replicate in the lungs and generate the appearance of granulomas, it facilitates that the bacteria are disseminated and they compromise the patient´s life, due to the fact that the pulmonary function may be compromised, and for this reason it is difficult to make oxygen reach the lungs and from there to the rest of the body.
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The duration of the treatment varies between one and a half and 3 years, depending on the patient´s age and the seriousness of the problem.
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Treatment
During the first two or three weeks of treatment, it is necessary that the patient be kept isolated in a room, which should be ventilated several times a day and always remain with the door closed at all times to prevent the dissemination of the bacteria to other rooms in the house.
“If a person has been in contact with a tuberculosis patient for a long time, he/she should go to the doctor and present his/her case. The symptoms or the absence of these, a thorax x-ray, and certain simple tests, such as the tuberculin one, will indicate to the doctor if he/she has contracted the bacteria and if he/she requires preventive treatment in order to prevent the infection,” said Dr. Roman.
For further information or for requesting medical attention, please call the number 2522-1000, or write to the email citas@clinicabiblica.com or contact us via chat at the website: www.clinicabiblica.com.
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Clínica Bíblica Hospital
