Abstract

UROGENITAL TUBERCULOSIS AND ITS APPLICATION BY ACID FAST STANING (ZN)

Seema Rani*, Yawar Amin and Shugufta Shakeel

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Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is believed to have been present in humans for thousands of years. Skeletal remains show that prehistoric humans (4000 BC) had tuberculosis, and tubercular decay has been found in the spine of Egyptian mummies (3000-2400 BC). During the 17th century, exact pathological and anatomical descriptions of tuberculosis began to appear. In 1679, Sylvius wrote his Opera Medica, in which he was the first to identify actual tubercles as a consistent and characteristic change in the lungs and other areas of consumptive patients. The earliest references to the infectious nature of tuberculosis also appeared in the 17th century Italian medical Literature. Due the variety of its symptoms, TB was not identified as a unified disease until the 1820s, and was named tuberculosis until 1839 by J. L. Schonlein. Tuberculosis kills over 1.7 million people worldwide every year and nearly 40% of patients with active tuberculosis remain undiagnosed because of the poor sensitivity of the current, century old diagnostic method. The situation is further exacerbated with the increasing incidence of drug resistant TB. Early diagnosis of TB remains an elusive challenge, especially in individuals with disseminated TB and HIV co-infection. The bacilli grows slowly, the generation time in vitro being 14-15 hours. Colonies appear in about two weeks and may sometimes take upto eight weeks. Optimum temperature is 370 C and growth does not occur below 250 C or above 400 C optimum pH is 6.4-7.0. M. tuberculosis is an obligate aerobe. Tubercle bacilli do not have exacting growth requirements but are highly susceptible even to traces of toxic substances like fatty acids in culture media or charcoal.

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