388 Tuberculosis
What Is
TB?
diabetes, 174
AIDS, 283
➤ Sometimes,
especially when
someone has HIV,
TB germs attack
other body organs,
the lymph nodes,
or the bones and
joints. This is called
extrapulmonary TB.
How TB
Is Spread
➤ When women
are sick with TB, it
may spread to their
children and others
they take care of
every day.
TB is caused by a small germ, or bacteria. Once this germ
enters a woman’s body, she is infected with TB and will carry
TB inside her, probably for life. Healthy people usually fight off
TB sickness. Only about 1 out
of 10 persons infected with TB
becomes sick with TB in his or
her lifetime.
But if a person is weak,
malnourished, diabetic, very
young or very old, or infected
with HIV, the TB starts to attack
This is what
the lungs look
like inside the
body.
her body. Usually this happens
in the lungs, where TB germs
eat holes in the tissue and
destroy blood vessels. As the
body tries to fight the disease,
the holes fill with pus and small amounts of blood.
Without treatment, the body starts to waste away, and the
person usually dies within 5 years. A person infected with both
HIV and TB may die in just a few months without treatment.
TB spreads from one person to another when someone
who is sick with TB coughs germs into the air. The TB germs
can live in the air for hours.
People who are sick with TB in their lungs can spread
the germs to others. People who are infected with TB but
not sick with signs of TB, and those who are sick with TB in
other parts of the body, are not contagious.
If the TB is not treated, a person sick with TB will infect
about 10 more people with TB each year. But once a
person has been taking medicines for about a month, he or
she is probably no longer contagious.
Where Women Have No Doctor 2012
This year, about 10 people will be infected by
each person who is sick with TB today.