Tuberculosis
infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tuberculosis ( tew-BUR-kew-LOH-siss, also TEW-bər-; TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis initially infects the lungs, but it can also spread to other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case tuberculosis is considered to be inactive or latent. A small proportion of latent infections progress to active disease that, if left untreated, can be fatal. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, fever, night sweats, and weight loss. Infection of other organs can cause a wide range of symptoms.
Tuberculosis is spread from one person to the next through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze. People with latent TB do not spread the disease. A latent infection is more likely to become active in individuals with weakened immune systems. There are three principal tests for TB: the interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA), the tuberculin skin test, and the nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
“Tuberculosis” enters the record as infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tuberculosis, infectious and disease can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12204. The Library of Congress control number is sh85138408. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tuberculosis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.