05 Sep Stem Cell Therapy May Be Able to Relieve Tuberculosis Symptoms
Tuberculosis is a respiratory disease that has evolved with humans over time. While it became relatively rare, the HIV epidemic made individuals more susceptible to the disease. It is a condition that affects the lung tissue and airways, making breathing difficult. Some strains have become increasingly more difficult to treat because they are now drug-resistant. Stem cell therapy may offer a way around these drug-resistant strains to still treat the patient’s symptoms.
What is Tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially dangerous infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes. This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs, or sings. Once rare in developed countries, tuberculosis infections began increasing because of the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens a person’s immune system so they cannot fight off the TB germs. As a result, people with HIV are many times more likely to get TB and to progress from latent to active disease than are people who aren’t HIV positive. It remains a concern today.
Many strains of tuberculosis resist the drugs most commonly used to treat the disease. People with active tuberculosis must take several types of medications for many months to eradicate the infection and prevent the development of antibiotic resistance. Tuberculosis can also affect other parts of your body, including your kidneys, spine, or brain. When TB spreads beyond your lungs, signs, and symptoms will vary depending on the location, it is effecting. For example, tuberculosis of the brain may cause confusion and neurological symptoms, and tuberculosis in your kidneys might cause blood in your urine.
Although tuberculosis is contagious, it’s not easy to catch. You’re much more likely to get tuberculosis from someone you live with or work with than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who’ve had appropriate drug treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious. There are vaccinations for tuberculosis, but because there are so many strains of drug-resistant TB, it is not always practical.
How Can Stem Cell Therapy Relieve My Tuberculosis Symptoms?
Tuberculosis has become increasingly more drug-resistant, causing more people to get sick who are immunocompromised. Stem cell therapy can be used to fight drug-resistant tuberculosis. Stem cells can restore healthy lung tissue that has been damaged by the disease. They are also able to control the body’s immune response and reduce inflammation in the lungs. Restoring function to the lungs can help the body heal and use its immune system to fight the drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis. More research needs to be done on the drug-resistance of TB to develop newer medications as a treatment alongside stem cell therapy. Stem cells can heal the damage done by the disease, but may not be all that’s needed to stop TB from spreading.
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