Diseases And Infections
Unit 12 – Task 3
Infectious Disease – Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Miss Peaches is a 25-year-old woman who lives with her parents, and she was diagnosed with
pulmonary tuberculosis. This is a conversation between her, and the doctor called Dr Alize where
Dr Alize will be informing Miss Peaches about how the infectious disease may have infected her,
what damage and disruption it has caused her body, what may happen gradually as time goes on
and how her ability to lead a normal life may affected.
Dr Alize: During our last appointment, you were diagnosed with being pulmonary tuberculosis
positive. This must have been a very difficult news. How have you been since we last met?
Miss Peaches: It was a very shocking news since I did not expect anything like this happening, it was
hard to tell my family since my mum never expected something so serious to happen as this has
never happened before in our families. It's difficult to stay at home and try to be as careful as
possible as my parents are old, and I don’t want anything to happen to them.
Dr Alize: I totally understand you since it is a tough situation that you are going through and what I
can say only to you is that we are trying our best to get you to be cured as soon as possible, since
you have come here in a sort of early stage where we will be able to help you out better.
Miss Peaches: Thank you so much for the hard work you are putting to get me to feel better and to
get rid of this illness. I was wondering if you could tell me more about this disease such as how this
bacterial could have infected me?
Dr Alize: There are many ways a person would be infected by the type of TB you have, which is the
one related to the lungs. For example, one reason that this bacterial disease infected you, could be
that you might have been close to a person who had active TB and they might have been coughing
and sneezing. The droplets they expelled into the air would have been inhaled by you and if your
immune system was strong enough then the bacterium would have been destroyed but if your
immune system wasn’t able to do so then the bacterium would have infected the targeted organ
causing you to begin showing symptoms
Miss Peaches: Thank you for the information as now I’ll be trying to stay away from people while I’m
outside to make sure that no one will get infected the way I am. Can you tell me how this is now
damaging my body?
Dr Alize: TB infection can cause airway inflammation making airways smaller, which increases air
velocity and displaces air to unobstructed areas. Therefore, airway inflammation can result in
prolonging TB infection and spread of the bacterium to healthy areas of the lung. This can cause you
to feel breathlessness even when you walk short distances as well abundance of cough as you will be
breathing a lot of air while feeling breathless, which will make your throat dry.
Miss Peaches: Okay that’s fine. What disruption of my life lies ahead of me?
Dr Alize: The best way to avoid anything disruptive in your lifetime that will be caused by this
disease is to take medications every day and complete a full course, which I will be telling you about
later.
Miss Peaches: What if this medication is not taken, what will I go through?
Dr Alize: You will have to take your medication of course but if you stop taking your medication
before you have fully healed then you’ll have dormant TB germs in your body that will not make you
Unit 12 – Task 3
Infectious Disease – Pulmonary Tuberculosis
Miss Peaches is a 25-year-old woman who lives with her parents, and she was diagnosed with
pulmonary tuberculosis. This is a conversation between her, and the doctor called Dr Alize where
Dr Alize will be informing Miss Peaches about how the infectious disease may have infected her,
what damage and disruption it has caused her body, what may happen gradually as time goes on
and how her ability to lead a normal life may affected.
Dr Alize: During our last appointment, you were diagnosed with being pulmonary tuberculosis
positive. This must have been a very difficult news. How have you been since we last met?
Miss Peaches: It was a very shocking news since I did not expect anything like this happening, it was
hard to tell my family since my mum never expected something so serious to happen as this has
never happened before in our families. It's difficult to stay at home and try to be as careful as
possible as my parents are old, and I don’t want anything to happen to them.
Dr Alize: I totally understand you since it is a tough situation that you are going through and what I
can say only to you is that we are trying our best to get you to be cured as soon as possible, since
you have come here in a sort of early stage where we will be able to help you out better.
Miss Peaches: Thank you so much for the hard work you are putting to get me to feel better and to
get rid of this illness. I was wondering if you could tell me more about this disease such as how this
bacterial could have infected me?
Dr Alize: There are many ways a person would be infected by the type of TB you have, which is the
one related to the lungs. For example, one reason that this bacterial disease infected you, could be
that you might have been close to a person who had active TB and they might have been coughing
and sneezing. The droplets they expelled into the air would have been inhaled by you and if your
immune system was strong enough then the bacterium would have been destroyed but if your
immune system wasn’t able to do so then the bacterium would have infected the targeted organ
causing you to begin showing symptoms
Miss Peaches: Thank you for the information as now I’ll be trying to stay away from people while I’m
outside to make sure that no one will get infected the way I am. Can you tell me how this is now
damaging my body?
Dr Alize: TB infection can cause airway inflammation making airways smaller, which increases air
velocity and displaces air to unobstructed areas. Therefore, airway inflammation can result in
prolonging TB infection and spread of the bacterium to healthy areas of the lung. This can cause you
to feel breathlessness even when you walk short distances as well abundance of cough as you will be
breathing a lot of air while feeling breathless, which will make your throat dry.
Miss Peaches: Okay that’s fine. What disruption of my life lies ahead of me?
Dr Alize: The best way to avoid anything disruptive in your lifetime that will be caused by this
disease is to take medications every day and complete a full course, which I will be telling you about
later.
Miss Peaches: What if this medication is not taken, what will I go through?
Dr Alize: You will have to take your medication of course but if you stop taking your medication
before you have fully healed then you’ll have dormant TB germs in your body that will not make you
