Contents:
- Medical Video: Clearing Your Chest with Breathing Exercises
- Asthma and tuberculosis are different causes
- Understand the different symptoms of asthma and tuberculosis
- Hard to breathe
- Cough
- Changes in body weight
- Other symptoms that accompany
- TB can spread to other organs, not asthma
- Asthma cannot be cured, tuberculosis can heal
- Who is at high risk for asthma and tuberculosis?
- How to diagnose asthma and tuberculosis
- Diagnosis of asthma
- TB diagnosis
- Treatment options for asthma and tuberculosis
- Asthma
- Tuberculosis
- How do you prevent these two diseases?
- Asthma
- Tuberculosis
Medical Video: Clearing Your Chest with Breathing Exercises
Asthma and tuberculosis (TB / TB) are two respiratory diseases that are common to the people of Indonesia. Both have the same general symptoms, namely coughing and shortness of breath. That's why there are manypeople think asthma and tuberculosis are interrelated diseases. In fact, these two diseases are completely different.If you are one of the people who are still confused about distinguishing the symptoms of asthma and tuberculosis, see the full explanation below.
Asthma and tuberculosis are different causes
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease caused by inflammation and narrowing of the airways (bronchi). Inflammation then also causes the lungs to produce excessive mucus which makes it difficult for air to enter and exit smoothly. As a result, you have difficulty breathing easily and often feel out of breath.
The cause of asthma inflammation is not known for sure, but a person's risk of developing asthma is strongly influenced by genetic factors (heredity) and triggers in the surrounding environment. Asthma attacks are generally triggered by inhaled air allergens (dust, star feathers, cigarette smoke, air pollution, etc.), drug side effects, changes in weather, to sports that are too intense. And most importantly, ahigh school is not infectious diseases.
Conversely, TB is an infectious disease caused by infectionbacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is very easily transmitted through the splash of water that gushes into the air when people with active tuberculosis cough or sneeze do not close their mouth or spit carelessly.
Understand the different symptoms of asthma and tuberculosis
Symptoms of asthma and pulmonary TB can look similar so it is difficult to distinguish by ordinary people.If you are one of them, here are various differences in the symptoms of asthma and tuberculosis that you should know and understand.
Hard to breathe
Both asthma and TB together can cause the lungs to produce excessive mucus in response to resistance to inflammation. As a result, you will have difficulty breathing easily and often short of breath.
Shortness of breath due to asthmaoften accompanied by wheezing. Wheezing is a soft voice such as whistling or breathing that sounds "screeching". You may also often feel tired, difficult to breathe freely, and feel the chest is often achy like there is a tight tie around the chest.
Usually shortness of breath due to asthma symptoms onlyappears when you are exposed to a trigger for asthma, such as breathing dust or after excessive physical activity. Once you manage to overcome an asthma attack and avoid the trigger, shortness of breath will slowly subside.
Shortness of breath due to tuberculosis happens permanently and continuously at all times, as a result of the development of infections that damage lung tissue. Even so, shortness of breath due to TB can also be exacerbated by physical activity that is too intense.
Cough
A hard cough is the most common symptom of asthma and tuberculosis. The following are differences in coughing as a symptom of asthma and TB symptoms:
- Asthma cough can dry or phlegm cough. The color of phlegm due to asthma is usually white or clear. It might look a little brownish if you have asthma who smoke, or if you also have COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) along with asthma. Asthma cough tends to worsen at night, after physical activity is too heavy, or in the morning when the air is cold.
- Coughing symptoms of tuberculosis occur continuously for a long time; does not stop for two weeks or more. Tuberculosis cough is generally cloudy yellowish green phlegm, as a sign of infection. People with TB can even get bloody phlegm due to an irritated airway.
Changes in body weight
Symptoms Asthma generally does not cause weight loss.
Meanwhile, TB can result in drastic weight loss. Experts argue that weight loss occurs because of the influence of drugs and stress that causes appetite to decrease.
Other symptoms that accompany
In addition to the symptoms above, people with TB also often cause excessive sweating at night, body heat, and fever. Fever and cold heat appear as the body's efforts to fight infections in the body.
Asthma will not cause these symptoms, because inflammation is only limited to the respiratory tract.
TB can spread to other organs, not asthma
The bacteria that cause tuberculosis most often attack the lungs. However, this disease can also spread to the bones, lymph nodes, the central nervous system of the brain, the heart, and to the genitals if not treated properly.
When it has spread to other parts of the body, TB infection will produce symptoms associated with the organ it attacks. For example in bone TB, the typical symptoms are pain and sensation in joints and bone weakness. If TB infection attacks the lymph nodes, the main symptom is swollen lymph nodes.
Meanwhile, asthma does not cause symptoms as above. Inflammation of asthma does not spread to other parts of the body. Inflammation of the airways due to asthma will only give rise to symptoms related to respiratory problems.
Asthma cannot be cured, tuberculosis can heal
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that cannot be cured. Treatment only aims to reduce the severity of the symptoms so that you can breathe more easily, and to prevent a recurrence of an asthma attack.
TB can be completely cured. Provided that people with TB follow all doctor's instructions and take medication until they are gone for up to 6 months. In some people the duration of treatment can be even longer, depending on the severity of the disease experienced.
Who is at high risk for asthma and tuberculosis?
Anyone at any age can get asthma and tuberculosis if they have risk factors.
Asthma is most vulnerable to attacking children and will continue to mature into adulthood. Among children, boys are more at risk of developing asthma than girls. However, more than 25 percent of people with asthma just experienced the first attack in adulthood.
According to WHO, asthma is the most common disease experienced by children who:
- Born to parents who also have a history of asthma.
- Having had an upper respiratory infection (ISPA) when he was a child, for example pneumonia, bronchitis, and so on.
- Have certain allergies, such as food allergies or eczema.
- Low birth weight.
- Premature birth.
Meanwhile, a person's risk of contracting tuberculosis is their immune system. The stronger your immune system, the more protected from infection. People who have weak immune systems such as the elderly, people with HIV or AIDS, people with cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and other autoimmune diseases have a higher risk of getting tuberculosis because their immune systems are unable to fight bacterial growth.
People who smoke, are addicted to alcohol, and use drugs are also at risk of developing TB disease.
How to diagnose asthma and tuberculosis
The best way to diagnose asthma and tuberculosis with certainty is to use a lung function test, X-ray examination, CT scan, medical history (including the type and frequency of symptoms), and a physical examination by a doctor.
Diagnosis of asthma
The doctor will perform a lung function test called spirometry. This test is done to check how your lungs are working, based on the volume of air that you can exhale in one second and the total amount of air exhaled.
Doctors can find obstacles to the respiratory tract that lead to asthma after comparing the data obtained with measurements that are considered healthy for people of your age.
Not only that, the doctor will also check for allergic status. This is done to find out whether the symptoms of asthma that you feel are caused by allergies or not. For example, allergies to food, mites, dust, pollen, or insect bites.
TB diagnosis
Whereas in pulmonary tuberculosis, the doctor will perform a phlegm examination to see if there are bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis which is acid resistant through examination of Acid Resistant Bacteria (BTA). Other tests that can be done are chest X-ray and Tuberculin Skin Test, which is used to test for the presence of latent tuberculosis.
In this test, a small amount of protein containing TB bacteria will be injected into the skin under the arm and then the doctor will monitor the reaction of your skin within two to three days thereafter. The size of the swelling in the part that is injected will indicate the possibility that you have TB.
In addition to skin tests, doctors will also take blood samples to check for the presence of bacteria that causes tuberculosis. HIV testing can also be done. For tuberculosis in other organs, the doctor will conduct other examinations that are deemed necessary.
Treatment options for asthma and tuberculosis
Asthma
Asthma is an incurable disease. The existing treatment aims to reduce asthma symptoms and prevent relapse. Asthma treatment can be done by oral, inhalation (inhalation), or injection. The use of inhaled medication is considered more effective because it can send drugs directly to your respiratory tract.
In general, asthma can be treated with two types of drugs, namely:
1. Long-term control drugs
Most people who have asthma should take long-term control medication every day to help prevent symptoms. Long-term medications are the most effective at reducing airway inflammation, and help prevent recurrence of asthma symptoms.
These drugs include inhaled corticosteroids (inhalation), Cromolyn, Omalizumab (anti-IgE). If you have severe asthma, you may need to use corticosteroid or liquid pills for the short term to keep your asthma under control.
In general, long-term control drugs are for someone who has:
- Asthma attacks more than twice a week
- Often wake up because of an asthma attack more than twice a month
- Requires more than two sets of oral steroid medications in a year
- Have been hospitalized for asthma symptoms
2. Short-term relievers
All people who have asthma need certain medications to help relieve symptoms of asthma that may recur. Usually the doctor will prescribe bronchodilator medication.
Bronchodilators are intended for short-term use. If you experience an asthma attack, by coughing and / or sighing, you can use bronchodilator medication. By opening the narrowed airways, bronchodilator drugs can relieve tightness in the chest and reduce wheezing and feeling unable to breathe. Usually this drug is prescribed based on needs. Bronchodilators needed during an acute attack are inhaler bronchodilators.
Short-acting inhalation of beta2-agonists (albuterol, pirbuterol, levalbuterol or bitolterol) is a type of bronchodilator for rapid relief. Other drugs are ipratropium (anticholinergic), prednisone, prednisolone (oral steroids). You should use a quick reliever when you have symptoms of asthma.
If you use this drug more than 2 days a week, talk to your doctor about a treatment plan to control your asthma symptoms. You may need to make changes to the treatment plan that suits your condition.
Tuberculosis
Unlike asthma, TB disease can be cured with drugs taken regularly and regularly. Treatment of appropriate TB will involve 3-4 daily antibiotics. The duration of treatment can take up to 6 to 9 months. In some cases, TB treatment can even run for years. The length of time the treatment often makes the patient forget to take medication or even cut off halfway.
Generally, patients will feel better after a few weeks. However, this does not mean that the bacteria that causes tuberculosis have disappeared from the body. Therefore, it is important for patients to complete the treatment stage to complete even though the symptoms of TB are gone.
If the treatment is not completed completely or stops in the middle, the bacteria that causes TB can remain in the patient's body. As a result, TB can recur, spread to other parts of the body and spread. The incomplete use of antibiotics can also make the bacteria that causes TB to be resistant to the available antibiotics. This will complicate the treatment of tuberculosis because the antibiotics available to treat TB are limited in kind.
So, take medication according to the doctor's recommendation to avoid the bacteria that causes TB to become immune. Termination of drug consumption is only based on doctor's advice.
Antibiotics given by doctors can have side effects such as red urine (not blood), ringing in the ears, tingling in the skin, nausea and vomiting, and yellow skin. Red urine is not something dangerous. But if other side effects arise, immediately see your doctor to handle it.
How do you prevent these two diseases?
Asthma
There are many triggers or causes of asthma. The reaction to asthma triggers is different for each person and can vary from time to time. Recognizing and avoiding various causes of specific asthma, is the main key to preventing asthma symptoms. Various asthma triggers may include:
- Exposure to substances in the air (such as air pollution, chemical fumes, or poisons)
- Weather factors (such as cold, windy and hot weather supported by poor air quality and drastic temperature changes)
- Active smokers and pastif smokers
- Upper respiratory tract infections (such as colds, flu, or pneumonia)
- Allergens such as food, pollen, mold, dust mites, and pet fur
- Sports
- Take certain drugs (such as aspirin, NSAIDs, and beta-blockers)
- Have a history of gastric acid reflux (GERD)
- Foods or drinks containing preservatives (such as MSG)
- Experience stress and emotional anxiety
- Singing, laughing, or crying too much
- Perfumes and fragrances
In addition to avoiding the triggers of asthma symptoms, it's also important for you to plan for asthma treatment. Using asthma treatment is a two-step approach. First, you might use a treatment that you normally do to prevent attacks. But, in addition, acting immediately when the first asthma symptoms appear is the key to preventing the attack.
This treatment can use an inhaler, nebulizer, oral medication, or injection. Please consult a doctor regarding preventative medicines that suit your needs.
It is also important for you to monitor how well your asthma treatment works by checking lung function regularly. You can use peak flow meter to measure the amount of water flowing from the lungs. This personal examination can reveal the narrowing of the respiratory tract before asthma symptoms appear.
Tuberculosis
Bacteria cause tuberculosis to spread from one person to another through phlegm or saliva from an infected person. For example when coughing, sneezing, talking, singing, or even laughing.
According to data from the National Guidelines for Tuberculosis Control issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Health, in one cough a person usually produces around 3,000 sputum spells or also called droplet nuclei.
The germs that come out of their coughs, TB sufferers can survive in the moist air that is not exposed to sunlight for hours. As a result, everyone who is close to and has contact with TB patients directly has the potential to breathe it so that it is eventually infected.
Well, to avoid these risks you can wear a maskter when interacting with people with TB and when in crowded places. Do not forget, hand washing regularly before and after the activity to ensure you are free from exposure to bacterial causes of tuberculosis.
The most important way to prevent TB transmission is to do BCG immunization (Bacilluc Calmette-Guerin). The BCG vaccine is developed from germsMycobacterium bovis whose characteristics are similar to the bacteria that causes TB,Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In other words, the BCG vaccine will form protection against tuberculosis. In Indonesia, vaccines are included in the list of mandatory immunizations that are given only once in newborns aged one to two months
