15 Frequent Causes of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by an infection. This infection is common in the lungs, but TB can affect other parts of the body instead and usually caused localized symptoms in whichever region it has managed to infect.

You will commonly hear of this disease as “TB” (just the letters T and B) since that is much easier to talk and write about and has pretty universal understand as to the meaning of that abbreviation. TB is caused by bacteria, but unlike most bacterial infections, it is resistant to a lot of antibiotics and is often difficult to treat. 

Some patients may need many months of different antibiotics administered at the same time, and there is no full guarantee that any one patient will make a full recovery from the disease. Even if a recovery is made, reinfection is possible even after the patient seems like they are completely healthy.

Here are 8 frequent causes that contribute to you catching TB:

1. You Visited a High-Risk Location

In certain parts of the world, there are places that have much higher rates of TB infection than anywhere else. This is extreme enough that you may be asked by a doctor on a regular question form if you have visited any specific regions known for TB because they don’t want to put their other patients at risk of transmission.

Tuberculosis can occur anywhere, but there are a few locations that have very high rates, including India and Africa. Another region where it is common in select parts of Asia, but this can vary widely and some parts of Asia don’t have much higher risk rates than anywhere else in the world. 

If you have visited these places, it is important to tell your doctor that if you start to feel sick so the proper diagnosis can be made and treatment can begin.