tuberculosis
n. uncountablen. a serious disease that usually attacks the lungs and can spread from person to person through the air. It is caused by bacteria and often makes people cough or feel very weak.
n. an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, primarily affecting the lungs but capable of spreading to other parts of the body. Characterised by the formation of tubercles in the tissues.
The doctor tested the patient for tuberculosis after a long cough.
Public health officials worked tirelessly to track the spread of tuberculosis within the crowded urban housing complex.
While modern antibiotics have made tuberculosis treatable, the emergence of drug-resistant strains remains a significant concern for global health organisations and medical researchers.
To international scientific vocabulary from New Latin tūberculōsis, from Latin tūberculum (diminutive of tūber (“lump”)) + Latin -ōsis (“diseased condition”); by surface analysis, tubercul(um) + -osis; named for the encapsulated colonies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the lungs in pulmonary tuberculosis, which can look like small tubers (tubercles) on gross pathology. The disease has existed throughout human experience and had other names for millennia before scientific medicine renamed it with a New Latin term in the mid-19th century (1840s); in English it was called consumption because of the wasting away that consumed health and seemed even to consume flesh in some cases (for example, causing fistulas and tissue breakdown).
Often abbreviated as TB in both medical and general contexts.