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Tuberculosis is a chronic infection, most often affecting the lungs, which usually manifests after a latency period from primary infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Symptoms are generally nonspecific, with fever, cough, weight loss and malaise. The diagnosis is based on microscopic examination of sputum smear and rapid diagnostic molecular tests, which are increasingly used today. Genotypic tests for establishing the strain involved and phenotypic antibiograms for early detection of drug resistance should guide the initiation of treatment but are still expensive. Treatment of active tuberculosis is done with combination of antimycobacterial drugs, administered for at least 6 months. The antituberculosis treatment has several purposes: to cure the patient, to reduce the risk of recurrence, to prevent the installation of chemo-resistance, to prevent complications and to reduce mortality, as well as to limit the spread of the infection. Drug combinations are used to prevent the development of resistance. The administration is long-lasting in order to achieve the sterilization of foci that are difficult to access by medicines, ensuring healing and relapse prevention. Generally, standard pharmacological protocols are used. In order to increase the adherence to the treatment and its completion, often the anti-tuberculosis treatment is done under direct observation, in what is called directly observed therapy. Undesirable effects of anti-tuberculosis drugs should be detected early and managed appropriately. Recently, many cases of tuberculosis are resistant to the first-line drugs isoniazid and rifampicin (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis), or to these drugs, fluoroquinolones and at least one injectable antimycobacterial drugs (extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis). Especially the treatment of the latter is difficult to do, because there are not currently too many therapeutic options. That is why it is important to detect the resistance early and to establish the appropriate treatment. Treatment of latent tuberculosis usually involves the administration of isoniazid for 9 months. BCG vaccination is an active immunization method used in countries with high incidence of tuberculosis (Romania being the country of the European Union with the highest incidence of tuberculosis), protecting mainly against miliary tuberculosis, a spread form of tuberculosis, severe especially in children. |
