MICR 2420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Retrovirus, Reverse Transcriptase, Sub-Saharan Africa

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Microbiology
• Course: MICR 2420
• Professor: Wendy Keenleyside

Document Summary

Tb is a primary pathogen but not highly infectious or virulent: many people who are exposed can effectively clear the infection will test be with tb skin positive with tb skin test. Others will form granulomas and go into remission. Secondary tb or reactivation tb: occurs when a tb+ patients health is compromised and the granulomas break down and the organisms can spread (generally within the lungs) Symptoms include weight loss or wasting of body (hence the old name. Treatment of active disease: if not mdr-tb, 4 antibiotics (isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide & ethambutol) for at least 6 months. Most recently: reports of totally drug-resistant tb (tdr-tb: the stop of tb strategy of the hwo. Goal of dramatically reducing the global burder of tb by 2015. This is theoretically possible because tb is a human disease (it won"t hide in animals) however the tb vaccine isn"t very good so it will be difficult to completely eradicate tb.