Is intestinal tuberculosis contagious? In what way?

Intestinal tuberculosis is a common tuberculosis disease of the digestive system. Intestinal tuberculosis carries infectious bacteria, which everyone needs to pay attention to. Intestinal tuberculosis is contagious and has multiple transmission routes. Learning more knowledge about it will help prevent the disease.

1. Gastrointestinal infection

It is the main mode of infection for intestinal tuberculosis. Patients originally have open pulmonary tuberculosis and are secondarily infected due to frequent swallowing of their own sputum containing tuberculosis bacteria; or they have frequent close contact with patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Neglecting disinfection and isolation measures may cause primary intestinal tuberculosis. After tuberculosis bacteria are ingested, most of them are not killed by stomach acid because of their lipid outer membrane. When the bacteria reach the intestine (especially in the ileocecal region), the food containing tuberculosis bacteria has already become chyme and has a greater chance of direct contact with the intestinal mucosa. At the same time, the existence of physiological retention and retrograde peristalsis in the ileocecal region further increases the chance of infection. In addition, the ileocecal region is rich in lymphoid tissue and is highly susceptible to tuberculosis. Therefore, the ileocecal region becomes a high-incidence site for intestinal tuberculosis.

2. Hematogenous dissemination

Hematogenous dissemination is also one of the routes of infection of intestinal tuberculosis. It is seen in miliary tuberculosis that spreads through the blood and invades the intestines.

3. Spread of adjacent tuberculosis lesions

Intestinal tuberculosis can also be caused by direct spread of tuberculosis lesions in the abdominal cavity, such as fallopian tube tuberculosis, tuberculous peritonitis, mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis, etc. The infection spreads through the lymphatic vessels. Tuberculosis, like many other diseases, is the result of an interaction between the human body and bacteria (or other pathogenic factors). The disease can only be caused when the invading tuberculosis bacilli are large in number, highly virulent, and the organism's immune function is abnormal (including weakened local resistance caused by intestinal dysfunction).