Medical Encyclopedia

Medical Encyclopedia

Tuberculosis of the lungs

Tuberculosis of the lungs

Tuberculosis is a contagious bacterial disease that primarily involves the lungs. Tuberculosis may develop after inhaling infected droplets sprayed into the air from a cough or sneeze of someone infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Update Date: 9/17/2008

Updated by: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; and Jatin M. Vyas, PhD, MD, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

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