Air borne diseases : symptoms, treatment

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Air borne diseases : symptoms, treatment
Top 5 Air borne diseases : symptoms, treatment

The air-borne bacterial diseases are diseases of respiratory tract or when bacteria gain entry into the body through respiratory tract. These include tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough and primary atypical pneumonia. Usually such diseases spread where there is a lot of crowd of people and their living conditions are also not proper.



Tuberculosis

Causative Agent
  1. Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that is spread primarily through coughs and sneezes from an infected person to other people in crowded places.
  2. The casual organism of this diseases is bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 
  3. This organism enters in the respiratory tract through the nose and grows on the lung tissue.

Symptoms 

According to doctors there are two types of TB found in human beings -
  1. Latent TB
  2. Active TB
  1. Latent TB – In this type of TB, you are infected with TB, but the bacteria are inactive in your body and do not cause any symptoms. So latent TB, also called inactive TB or TB infection, is not contagious. But latent TB can turn into active TB, so treatment is important.
  2. Active TB - This is the typical TB disease that you can get sick from. And in most cases these infections also spread from one person to another. This can happen weeks or years after infection with TB bacteria. That's why it sometimes takes years to identify them.

The symptoms of active TB are as follows -
  1. Chronic cough, chest pain, high fever, and sputum that may be rust-colored if blood enters the lung cavity.
  2. The incubation period of the disease for primary infection is approximately 2–10 weeks, but it may take up to six months before symptoms are fully recognized. In infected lung macrophages, leukocytes and T-lymphocytes engulf the parasite.
  3. It gets deposited with calcium salts and fibrous material to form a hard nodule tubercle.
  4. Tubercles are visible in the chest X-ray. Tubercles break down the bacteria and spread to the liver, bones and kidneys.
Treatment 

Suitable antibiotics.


Protection from Disease

  1. Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) is a preparation of an attenuated strain of M. bovis that is used in immunization programmes of tuberculosis.
  2. Patient's cough should be bruned.
  3. Food given to patient should be much proteineous and less fatty.
  4. Towel and other clothes of patient should be sterilized every day.
  5. Regular consultation with doctor is necessary.


Diphtheria

Diphtheria is a serious infectious disease caused by bacteria. It usually affects the mucous membranes of the nose and throat.

Diphtheria can be treated with medicines. But in advanced stages, diphtheria can be fatal as it can damage the heart, kidneys and nervous system. Sometimes diphtheria can be deadly even after treatment, especially in children. 


Causative Agent 
  1. It is caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which was first identified by Edwin Klebs in 1883 in material from a patient's throat.
  2. The bacterium is club-shaped, bound by leathery membranes, and gram-positive with numerous matte achromatic granules in the cytoplasm.
  3. This disease is spread in many countries but it is a major problem in India.
  4. It is spread through droplets of infected cough or sneeze from an infected person to a healthy person. When a healthy person inhales it, it infects the upper respiratory tract near the tonsils. It grows rapidly and produces an exotoxin.

Symptoms

The toxin released by the bacteria interferes with the protein metabolism of cells such as mucus and leukocytes. Dead tissue accumulates and forms a dirty gray pseudomembrane. The material is leathery and fibrous. Respiratory arrest may occur in young children. These signs and symptoms of diphtheria usually begin 2 to 5 days after a person is infected. Signs and symptoms may include:

  • thick, brown membrane covering the throat and tonsils
  • sore throat and hoarseness
  • Swollen neck (enlarged lymph nodes).
  • difficulty breathing or rapid breathing
  • running nose
  • Mumps-like symptoms 
  • fever and chills
  • fatigue

Furthermore, in adults, this toxin circulates in the bloodstream, damaging the heart muscle, leading to heart weakness and heart failure. Also there can be paralysis.

Some people are infected with the bacteria that cause diphtheria but only cause a mild illness. Infected people who remain unaware of their illness are known as carriers of diphtheria. Because they can spread the infection without getting sick themselves.


Treatment and methods of Protection - 

These treatment are as follows-

1. Diphtheria is treated by antibiotics and antitoxins. For this purpose Penicillins and serum toxins are used. Long term protection is done by injecting diphtheria toxoid, that induces the formation of antitoxins. This is one of the DPT series given to infants.

2. Rooms of the patient should be warmed always.

3. Urine and faeces, sputum and mucus should be burned

4. Solution of carbolic acid should be sprinkled around the patient room.



Meningococcal Meningitis

Causative Agent 

The disease is caused by Neissria meningitides, a small gram-negative diplococcus commonly known as meningococcus. 

This organism often enters the body of another by droplets from one carrier.
These diseases are often severe and can be fatal, are rapidly passed through the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract and include infections of the brain, spinal cord (meningitis) and bloodstream where it rapidly Multiplies.


Symptoms 

These symptoms may occur within a short period of a few hours after infection and exposure to the substance. The patient may even die as a result of vascular damage. 
The most common symptoms of this disease is include:
  1. Fever
  2. Headache
  3. Stiff neck
After a blood transfusion, the bacteria localize on the covering of the spinal cord and brain, known as the foramen, causing severe headache and neck stiffness. 

Apart from this, there are also hemorrhagic rash on the skin. The spots (capillary horomobes) begin as bright red spots and turn purple and eventually blue-black. 

The patient is often confused and delirious, and death can occur in up to 50 percent of untreated cases.

Newborns and infants may not show any such particular symptoms, or those symptoms may be difficult to notice in infants. Instead, babies may be lethargic or inactive, irritable, vomit, have poor feeding


Treatment and methods of Protection 

Earlier treatment is desirable. Sulfonamide drugs, rifampin, and ampicillin are often used. 
Diagnosis is based on physical symptoms, and observation of Gram-negative diplococcic in centrifuged samples of cerebrospinal fluid.

Some cases are complicated by hemorrhagic lesions that occur in the adrenal glands and cause hormonal imbalance and physiological disturbances. This condition, called the Waterhouse-Friderichsen Syndrome, may result from an allergic reaction involving immune complex formation and activation of complement.




Pneumococcal Pneumonia

Pathogen 

The word pneumonia in a broad sense includes a number of microbial of the bronchial tubes and lung tissues. About 90 percent of bacterial cases are caused by Gram-positive diplodocus having a capsule and lancent-like pointed ends. 

This organism, commonly known as pneumoccoccus was assigned in older literature to Diplococcus pneumonia. However, in the latest edition of Bergey's Manual it is described as Streptococcus pneumonie.


Symptoms 

It is present in the upper respiratory tract, usually acquired from another carrier by respiratory droplets or contact.

The patient usually becomes susceptible when exposed to viral infection, allergic reaction, extensive surgery, malnutrition.

Some of its common symptoms are -
  1. Excessive smoking or depression of the immune system.
  2. high fever,
  3. sharp chest pain
  4. bacterial infiltration of lung tissue

The bacteria invade the lung tissue, causing destruction of the alveolar walls, causing blood to leak into the lung spaces and to expel rust-colored sputum.
If the entire lobe of the lung is affected, it is called lobar pneumonia. If both the sides are infected then it is called double pneumonia.

Scattered patches of infection in the bronchial tree produce bronchopneumonia. Penicillin is a common drug.

The bacterium produces several virulence factors—hemolysins, leukocidins, and hyaluronidase. Due to the presence of capsule, it resists phagocytosis. Based on several serological tests, about a dozen variants have been identified that cause human infection.


Treatment 
Using antibiotics.




Whooping Cough (Pertussis)


Pathogen 

Whooping cough (pertussis) is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection. Especially in children. In many people the disease is marked by a severe hacking cough, followed by rapid wheezing of this breath that sounds like a "whoop".

In this disease, bacteria grow in the lining of the upper respiratory tract, causing cell breakdown and accumulation in the airways. Due to obstruction of the bronchi with nukes and ebris, there is difficulty in breathing, which leads to oxygen starvation or hypoxia. The narrowing of the tubes results in a high pitch "whoop" as a result of rapid inspiration. A child may be prone to ten to fifteen attacks of cough during the day.

Before the vaccine was developed, whooping cough was considered a childhood disease. Because it affects children more now whooping cough mainly affects children who have not completed the full course of vaccinations and adolescents and adults who have a weakened immune system.


Symptoms 

The causal organism, Bordetella pertussis, was first isolated by Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou in 1906 and became known as Bordetella-Gengou bacillus. it is a small, fragile, Gram-negative rod. 
The bacterium passes from one person to another by respiratory droplets. Early treatment with penicillin derivatives and erythromycin is recommended, as prophylactic measures. 

Its symptoms are usually mild at first and are similar to those of the common cold. If you become infected with whooping cough, it takes about seven to 10 days for signs and symptoms to appear, although it can sometimes take longer. 

Some of its common symptoms are as follows -
  1. running nose
  2. nasal congestion
  3. red, watery eyes
  4. fever
  5. cough

After a week or two, the signs and symptoms worsen. Thick mucus accumulates inside the airways of the patient, causing him to cough uncontrollably.

Sometimes, a persistent hacking cough is the only sign that a teen or adult has whooping cough.

Babies may not cough at all. Instead, they have difficulty breathing.

The vaccine is produced by killing Bordetella pertussis with merthiolate in a manner first described by Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering in 1939. The intact bacteria were then mixed with diphtheria and tetanus in the DPT preparation.


Treatment 

Early treatment is with penicillin derivatives or erythromycin, tetracycline or chloromphenicol.






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