Question

What are the causes and symptoms of tetanus, poliomyelitis, and tuberculosis? How can these diseases be prevented?

Answer 1

Hint: Tuberculosis and poliomyelitis are highly contagious diseases, while tetanus is not contagious. Vaccinations for poliomyelitis and tetanus are available, but for tuberculosis, there is no vaccine.

Complete step by step answer: The causes of disease are various factors that lead to disease and symptoms are reactions of causes. Some diseases are highly contagious, which means that they can spread easily from infected to uninfected beings. Non-contagious diseases are non-communicable and thus cannot spread easily. Precautions that are safety measures are taken to ensure less spread of disease and for better recovery of patients.
Let us now understand each disease with its cause, symptoms, and precautions.
i. Tetanus- Tetanus or Lockjaw disease is an acute infectious disease that is caused by Clostridium tetani bacteria. The disease can be caught through contact with tetani spore infected surfaces like soil, ash, feces, or rusty tools.
-Symptoms of tetanus include the inability to move the jaw causing difficulty in swallowing, sweating, fever, faster heart rate, muscle spasms, seizures, and headache.
-Prevention for tetanus is tetanus-toxoid-containing vaccines. Immunization is the only effective preventive measure against tetanus.
ii. Poliomyelitis- It is also known as Polio as it is caused by Poliovirus which attacks the nervous system. It is a highly infectious viral disease. The major risk group is children below 5 years of age.
-Symptoms will be paralysis majorly in the spinal cord or the brainstem. Other symptoms are flu-like symptoms. Mostly it is asymptomatic but the asymptomatic patient can spread it too.
-Prevention is by vaccination called polio shots. Immunization is administered in children in different doses based on their age groups.
iii. Tuberculosis- Tuberculosis or TB is also a highly infectious disease that is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It can be inactive or a latent state or active state in the host body. It majorly affects the lungs. It spreads through aerosols or tiny droplets that are released by an infected person’s cough or sneeze.
-Symptoms usually occur in the active phase of bacteria. The symptoms are intense coughing which can last three or more weeks, chest pain, unintentional weight loss due to loss of appetite, fatigue, fever, and chills.
-Prevention is to avoid contact with the infected person. There is a BCG vaccine available for children.

Note: For ages scientists are trying to combat various lethal diseases through immunization. Polio was considered a very lethal disease once, but now due to the introduction of polio drops from early childhood, it has been almost eradicated. Thus, vaccination should not be avoided.