Tuberculosis Individual cases of a notifiable disease must be reported to the Centers for Disease Control to prevent it from spreading.
Tuberculosis is a chronic communicable disease caused by a variety of tubercle bacilli.
The lungs are the primary target , and infection occurs primarily by inhalation. Tuberculosis can be effectively treated with bacteriostatic and bactericidal drugs. Patients must take their all their medications as directed or the disease will re-emerge, sometimes in a stronger form. This is so important that patients must be directly observed taking their medications. As with most infectious diseases in the USA, the incidence and mortality from tuberculosis has dropped dramatically in the past century.