Tuberculosis programme
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.
It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease. In healthy people, infection with M. tuberculosis often does not cause symptoms, because the person’s immune system acts to ‘wall off’ the bacteria. The symptoms of active TB of the lung are coughing (sometimes with sputum or blood), chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever, and night sweats. Tuberculosis is treatable with a six-month course of antibiotics.