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Tuberculosis

Dr Jeremy Jones and Dr Frank Gaillard et al.

Tuberculosis encompasses an enormously wide disease spectrum predominantly caused by the organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A small proportion can also be caused Mycobacterium bovis. It can involve a host of organs and can have many manifestetions which include

pulmonary tuberculosis
cardiac tuberculosis
CNS tuberculosis
tuberculous otomastoiditis
tuberculous mastitis
tuberculous lymphadenopathy
- scrofula
skeletal tuberculosis
gastrointestinal tuberculosis and tuberculous peritonitis
genitourinary tuberculosis
- renal tuberculosis
- bladder and urinary tuberculosis
- prostatic tuberculosis
- scrotal tuberculosis (testes, epididymis, seminal vesicles, vas deferens)
- tuberculous pelvic inflammatory disease (female)
tuberculoma

Epidemiology

Although TB continues to be very common in developing nations, in western industrialised populations it has become uncommon, but is increasing in prevalence among immunocompromised patients, particularly those with AIDS. An estimated 5% HIV patients have Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections, which become clinically apparent when CD4+ counts drop to below 350 cells/mm^3,typically with findings of post-primary pulmonary tuberculosis ².