Tuberculosis: an old disease with a new face

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that was considered essentially eradicated until a few years ago. Many health care providers in the United States, entering their professions during the time that TB was considered conquered, received little training about the means to control and prevent the spread of TB. Efforts once targeted towards the control and prevention of TB have been directed to other areas, while cases of TB have increased. Today health care providers see increased numbers of persons with TB, along with increasing numbers of persons with TB disease that is proving resistant to many of the drugs that previously were used to successfully treat TB. As health care providers, nurses must be able to properly assess the risks that patients face from TB exposure, and the risks that nurses face when caring for TB patients. The primary means of slowing the spread of TB involves early diagnosis, proper treatment and proper isolation of persons suspected of having TB. The goal of this article is to discuss the basic pathophysiology of TB infection and disease, means of spread of TB, risk factors associated with TB, signs and symptoms of TB and basic nursing care of patients with TB, emphasizing the care that patients with both renal disease and TB require.