Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that can infect your lungs or other tissues. It most commonly affects your lungs, but it can also affect your spine, brain, or kidneys. The term "tuberculosis" is derived from the Latin word for "nodule," or something that protrudes.
Tuberculosis is also abbreviated as TB. Not everyone infected with tuberculosis becomes ill, but if you do, you must be treated.
If you have the bacterium but have no symptoms, you have inactive tuberculosis or latent tuberculosis infection (also called latent TB). TB may appear to be gone, but it is actually dormant (sleeping) inside your body.
You have active tuberculosis or tuberculosis disease if you are infected, develop symptoms, and are contagious (TB disease).
The three stages of tuberculosis are as follows:
- The first infection.
- Infection with latent tuberculosis.
- Active tuberculosis
The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes tuberculosis. Germs spread through the air and typically infect the lungs, but they can also infect other parts of the body. Although tuberculosis is contagious, it is not easily transmitted. To catch a contagious disease, you usually have to spend a lot of time in contact with someone who has it.
