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Pathogenic Microorganisms

Tuberculosis

  • 3 things to know
  • Components 01, 02 and 03

Overview

Recall questions on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis, droplet transmission, survival inside macrophages, tubercles, primary and dormant infection, the triggers and symptoms of active secondary tuberculosis, combination antibiotic treatment and directly observed treatment.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Which organisms cause tuberculosis in humans, and what allows a latent infection to become active disease?

Key term

Name the bacterium responsible for most cases of tuberculosis in humans.

Key term

Which species of Mycobacterium causes tuberculosis in cattle and can be passed to people?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the bacterium responsible for most cases of tuberculosis in humans.

    Model answer

    Tuberculosis is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

  2. 2

    Which species of Mycobacterium causes tuberculosis in cattle and can be passed to people?

    Model answer

    Mycobacterium bovis, which can be caught from unpasteurised milk or from close contact with infected cattle.

  3. 3

    How is tuberculosis transmitted from one person to another?

    Model answer

    It spreads by droplet infection: an infected person coughs, sneezes, laughs or talks and releases tiny droplets of mucus containing the bacteria, which another person breathes in.

  4. 4

    How does Mycobacterium tuberculosis survive inside a macrophage that has engulfed it?

    Model answer

    Its thick waxy cell wall of mycolic acid resists the hydrolytic enzymes released from lysosomes, so the bacterium is not digested and can persist and divide inside the phagocyte.

  5. 5

    What is a tubercle?

    Model answer

    A tubercle is a small mass of scar tissue and immune cells formed in the lung, which walls off and contains the bacteria.

  6. 6

    What happens during a primary tuberculosis infection?

    Model answer

    Inhaled bacteria are engulfed by macrophages in the lungs but survive inside them, the immune response seals them into tubercles, and in most people the infection is contained within a few weeks with only mild symptoms or none at all.

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