Nick Postagulous
Friday, November 12, 2004
Mycobacterium Bovis
Here, read these snippets I gleaned from this New Zealand govt doc about Mycobacterium Bovis in Milk:
This is one of two species of the “tubercle bacilli” (the other is M. tuberculosis) that are able to cause tuberculosis in humans. Unlike M. tuberculosis, M. bovis infects cattle and other animals and so the disease can be spread to humans via contaminated milk. M. tuberculosis is the most common cause of human tuberculosis. The proportion of cases caused by M. bovis is significant in developing countries, where animal tuberculosis is widely distributed, control measures are not consistently applied and pasteurisation is rarely practiced.
Humans are a reservoir of the organism, but human to human infection occurs only rarely.
M. bovis infection was a major public health problem when this organism was transmitted to humans in unpasteurised milk from infected cows. The introduction of pasteurisation of milk and milk products helped to eliminate this problem. Exposure to the organism via milk appears to be the only significant foodborne exposure. The UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food website information regarding M. bovis cites unpasteurised milk as the exposure route, and also states that there are no recorded instances of humans catching bovine tuberculosis from meat.
Tuberculosis is the general name for a group of diseases associated with the presence of Mycobacterium spp., of which pulmonary (lung) tuberculosis is the most important. Although it usually affects the lungs it can affect almost any organ, usually spreading via the lymphatic vessels. Various manifestations of the disease are known as scrofula and consumption. The organism is less commonly found in muscle tissue, or in parts of the body with few blood vessels.
Infected people may not develop symptoms as their immune system can usually control the bacterium, sometimes throughout life. However inactive bacteria can become active again later in life, particularly if the immune system is weakened. Reactivation of M. bovis infections acquired prior to widespread milk pasteurisation is a significant contributor to the current incidence of infection with this organism.
Symptoms: Fever, chills, weight loss, abdominal pain, diarrhoea or constipation. Other symptoms depend on the organs infected. Symptoms may last for months or years.
People Affected: Immunosuppressed people are especially at risk of either acute infection or reactivation of an infection acquired in the past. In countries where infection is uncontrolled children are at greater risk of infection.
Long Term Effects: The course of the disease is long term and may result in death.
Treatment: Multiple antibiotic treatment is required to be administered over protracted periods. This is because the organism may have antibiotic resistance and this will not be apparent for long periods because of the slow growth of the organism.
Dr. Fjord gave us a call last night. M. bovis was present in the blood taken from Nina a few weeks ago. After doing some reading, basically, Nina's fine, except if she ever gets a little immunosupressed, to what degree I'm not clear (staying in the rain too long? Old age? Lupus?) then this stuff will wake up and give her TB.
Crap.
