Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious bacterial infection that involves the lungs. It may spread to other organs.
Causes
Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). TB is contagious. This means the bacteria is easily spread from an infected person to someone else. You can get TB by breathing in air droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person. The resulting lung infection is called primary TB.
Most people recover from p...
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Diseases & Treatment
Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
What is tuberculosis (TB)?
Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria that are spread from person to person through the air. TB usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body, such as the brain, the kidneys, or the spine. In most cases, TB is treatable and curable; however, persons with TB can die if they do not get proper treatment.
What is multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB)?
Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) is caused by an organism that is resistant t...
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Lung Cancer
Lung cancer is cancer that starts in the lungs. The lungs are located in the chest. When you breathe, air goes through your nose, down your windpipe (trachea), and into the lungs, where it flows through tubes called bronchi. Most lung cancer begins in the cells that line these tubes.
There are two main types of lung cancer :
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) makes up about 20% of all lung cancer cases.
If the lung cance...
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Interstitial Lung Disease
Introduction
There are more than 300 different conditions that are classed as interstitial lung diseases. Most are very rare; but the more common interstitial lung diseases include:
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Sarcoidosis.
Non-Specific Interstitial Pneumonia .
Extrinsic allergic alveolitis (also known as hypersensitivity pneumonitis).
Interstitial lung disease associated with connective tissue disease.
Pneumoconiosis.
Interstitial lung disease caused by certain drugs used to t...
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Sleep Apnea
Introduction
Sleep apnea is a disorder that affects more than 18 million Indians. The word apnea means pauses in breathing; people who have sleep apnea literally stop breathing for short periods of time while sleeping. The pauses in breath usually last only a few seconds, but a person with sleep apnea may stop breathing many times in an hour, and hundreds of times over the course of a night. Most people with sleep apnea are unaware of their condition.
There are two kinds of sleep apnea: obstru...
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Pneumonia
What is pneumonia?
Pneumonia is caused by an infection in the lungs. The infection affects the air sacs in the lungs rather than the tubes that carry air to and from the lungs. Infected parts of the lung fill up with fluid, which contains white blood cells that fight the infection.
What causes pneumonia? Where does it come from?
Pneumonia is caused by germs (tiny organisms that can cause disease). Viruses, bacteria and fungi are types of germ that can cause pneumonia. Healthy people don’t usu...
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COPD
Introduction
COPD is a serious, progressive lung disease that can make it difficult to breathe and get enough oxygen into the body. It can make simple activities like walking up the stairs or running daily errands challenging.
Symptoms
The most common symptom of COPD is shortness of breath. While it’s common to feel short of breath after physical exertion, simple everyday activities, such as getting dressed or walking up a few steps, can cause someone with COPD to feel seriously short of brea...
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Asthma
Introduction
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing. It can affect adults or children. Approximately 1 in 12 adults and 1 in 11 children have asthma.
Air enters your body through your nose and mouth. When you breathe air in, it moves down to your lungs through a breathing tube called the trachea (wind pipe) and many branching tubes called airways. In most healthy people, these airways are wide open, so air can flow unobstructed. In pe...
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