Tuberculosis is caused by is a type of infectious bacteria called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Additionally,  this disease is spread through the air, similar to the flu or a cold. Tiny droplets of saliva that may contain the bacteria are released when someone who’s sick coughs, sneezes, talks, laughs, etc. When another nearby individual breathes in/ inhales the germs, the person is now infected. The nearby person gets infected because the mycobacteria continues its way down the person’s respiratory tract, making its way to the airways, alveoli, and lungs. As this occurs, the body detects the invasion of the bacterias and tries to defend itself, using special cells called macrophages. Macrophages eat up, digest and destroy foreign cells. The macrophages engulf the mycobacteria and bring them to the lymph nodes where they can get neutralized. The bacteria ingested by the macrophages are able to survive inside, which triggers an inflammatory response to the body to bring other defensive cells to the infected area. With all of the tissues together, this creates a granuloma. The defensive cells surround the infected macrophages cells with the bacteria inside, therefore these macrophages and bacteria are killed.   If the mycobacteria is neutralized the person will have a form of Tuberculosis that is called latent tuberculosis. Latent tuberculosis is when a person is infected with the mycobacteria but they’re not sick since they don’t have active TB. On the other hand, about 5% of the time, the immune system in certain people can be overwhelmed by the germs and bacteria in the body, therefore this causes the TB mycobacteria to multiply and escape. This form of Tuberculosis is called active TB. This type of tuberculosis causes the individuals to become sick, which occurs frequently with young children that have weaker immune systems. In addition, although a person who has latent TB is not sick, in some cases the bacterias can wake up/reactivate and become active TB, which can happen at any given time within months, or even years of the neutralization of the bacterias. There is a higher risk of this occurring in adults who are HIV-positive, had organ transplants, or undergoing chemotherapy, this is due to the fact that they have a weaker immune system.

Although Tuberculosis is contagious, it is difficult to spread to other people. This is because the germs grow slow and gradually, therefore a person must be spending an abundance of time around a person who has been infected.  As a result, this is the reason as to why Tuberculosis is often spread through friends, workers, family members, and close individuals. Furthermore, if an individual catches a Tuberculosis infection, they may not get ill, due to the fact that there are two different forms of this disease. Latent TB and active TB.