After a person has recovered from tuberculosis, pathogenic bacteria do not completely leave the body. A small part of them passes into a latent ("sleeping") state and is controlled by the immune system. This provides specific immunity, but in rare cases, secondary tuberculosis may occur. In such a situation it is important to start chemotherapy on time, only with its help you can achieve a favorable outcome.
How does secondary tuberculosis develop?
The described illness can appear for 2 reasons:
- Endogenous reactivation is the process of activating an existing focus of tuberculosis bacteria previously present in the body.
- Exogenous superinfection - the penetration of a large number of pathogens from the outside.
Symptoms and complications of secondary tuberculosis
The onset of the disease in question occurs imperceptibly for the patient, but the organ damage progresses over a period of several weeks.
Characteristic signs that arise with the development of pulmonary tuberculosis:
- heat;
- prolonged cough;
- hemoptysis;
- lack of appetite;
- losing weight.
In the extrapulmonary form of pathology, clinical manifestations are very diverse and correspond to the lesion of the organ in which the inflammatory process occurs.
Among the complications of secondary tuberculosis is worth noting:
- meningitis;
- pericarditis;
- fistulas;
- purulent pleurisy;
- abscesses;
- peritonitis;
- deformation of joints and bones;
- sequestration;
- bleeding;
- amyloidosis;
- pneumothorax ;
- pulmonary heart failure;
- cavernous processes;
- soft tissue damage;
- death.
Treatment of secondary tuberculosis
Conservative chemotherapy therapy is to take such medications:
- Pyrazinamide;
- Rifampicin ;
- Isoniazid;
- Ethambutol.
Dosage and combination of drugs is selected individually at the reception at the phthisiatrician after examining the results of the tests. In rare cases, for example, with intensive internal bleeding, pericarditis, surgical intervention is required.