Is tuberculosis hereditary?

Pulmonary tuberculosis is a common lung disease. It is contagious to a certain extent. Its transmission routes are mainly respiratory tract infection, digestive tract infection, skin tissue mucous membrane, or genital contact infection. It is quite harmful to patients, often causing low fever, fatigue, weight loss and other symptoms. For women, it can also easily cause menstrual disorders, often leading to coughing, shortness of breath and so on.

1. Respiratory tract infection:

It is the main route of infection. Healthy children may become infected and develop primary lung lesions after inhaling bacteria-carrying droplets or dust.

2. Digestive tract infection:

The disease is mostly caused by drinking unsterilized or poorly sterilized milk contaminated with bovine tuberculosis bacteria or other food contaminated with human tuberculosis bacteria, and the disease mostly occurs in primary lesions in the pharynx or intestines.

3. Other infections:

It can be transmitted through contact with broken skin, mucous membranes, reproductive organs, etc. Congenital tuberculosis can also be transmitted through the placenta or by inhalation of amniotic fluid, often resulting in miliary tuberculosis or genital tuberculosis shortly after birth. Humans are generally susceptible. Whether a person becomes ill after being infected depends on the number and virulence of the infected bacteria, and the body's nonspecific and specific resistance. Various factors such as nutritional status, mental stress, physical exhaustion, long-term use of corticosteroids, tumor chemotherapy, immunosuppressive therapy, diabetes, etc. can reduce the body's resistance, making it easy to be infected or cause tuberculosis to spread and worsen.

Symptoms of tuberculosis    

1. Symptoms: There is a history of close contact with tuberculosis. The onset can be acute or slow, mostly with low fever (especially in the afternoon), night sweats, fatigue, poor appetite, weight loss, menstrual disorders in women, etc.; respiratory symptoms include cough, sputum, hemoptysis, chest pain, varying degrees of chest tightness or dyspnea. Respiratory symptoms include cough and sputum.

2. Signs: Pulmonary signs vary depending on the severity of the disease and the extent of the lesions. It is difficult to find positive signs in early-stage, small-scale tuberculosis. Those with a wider range of lesions will have dull percussion, increased vocal fremitus, low alveolar breath sounds and moist rales. In late stage tuberculosis, fibrosis develops and local contraction causes pleural collapse and mediastinal displacement. In the early stages of tuberculous pleurisy, there is a pleural friction sound. When a large amount of pleural effusion is formed, the chest wall becomes full, dull to percussion, and the vocal fremitus and breath sounds decrease or disappear.