Tuberculosis (TB) can be classified by behavior, cause, and treatment. It can be latent or active, caused by various mycobacteria, and can develop drug resistance. Treatment depends on the strain and drug resistance, which can be a challenge in developing countries.
Types of tuberculosis (TB) can be classified in a number of ways. They can be organized by how an infection behaves and whether it is latent and noncontagious, or active and causing serious disease. Medical experts also consider this disease based on what causes it and how easy it is to treat; there are super resistant strains that do not respond to standard antibiotic treatment. TB types can mean stages in the TB disease process, usually referred to as primary, reactivated secondary, and disseminated.
Those infected with the different strains of tuberculosis may not necessarily show any disease. They can be in a latent stage where people remain healthy and show no signs such as weakness, fever, cough, or impact on other organs. The latent phase is generally considered to be non-contagious but can, at any time, progress to the active phase where the lungs are affected and where the disease is dangerous and contagious. This is why patients are treated if they show signs of exposure to TB, even if they have no symptoms of the disease.
Medical professionals can also discuss the types of tuberculosis in terms of its process in the human body. The primary phase is identical to the latency. This refers to the action of the immune system when mycobacteria enter the body. In healthy bodies, the immune system prevents an active infection from occurring. If for some reason the immune system cannot fight this fight, when the infection occurs, or even years later, the infection will spread to the lungs in what is called a reactivated secondary stage. Infection of the lungs, if left untreated, can spread to other vital organs of the body and can eventually result in death in the disseminated stage.
Many websites identify TB as being caused by M. tuberculosis, but the types of TB, classified by strain, are more diverse. Other mycobacteria that can cause tuberculosis include M. canetti and M. microti, and there are many others. To understand this disease, it is important to note that different strains of bacteria, all of the mycobacterial type, can create tuberculosis.
When considering types of TB for treatment, you need to know more about the strain a patient has and whether the bacteria has changed and developed drug resistance. Fast-spreading, drug-resistant forms were created most often by people who failed to meet treatment guidelines and did not finish their TB drug regimen. These new strains require the application of very specific drugs to create the cure. In cases of TB strains that have become resistant to multiple drugs (MDR-TB), treatment switches from antibiotics to several years of chemotherapy. This is not always accessible in developing countries where TB can proliferate and the World Health Organization (WHO) considers this a serious challenge on the international front.
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