Diabetes Mellitus as a Predisposing Factor of Tuberculosis Essay (Essay Sample)

Tuberculosis
Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Diabetes Mellitus as a Predisposing Factor of Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a chronic debilitating disease that poses a high health risk to the healthcare workers and the community in general. In one of my nursing shifts, a 75-year-old African-American man presented at the out-patient clinic with a history of the night sweating, persistent productive cough for two weeks, and chest pains. On examination, he had swollen cervical lymph nodes. Imaging and laboratory findings showed that the patient was suffering from tuberculosis. On further investigation, the patient disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus and has been on medication for five years.
Diabetes Mellitus is one of the chronic diseases that render a patient immune-compromised (Yan, Gao, Trinh & Grant, 2017). In elderly patients, lowered immunity increases the chances of contracting opportunistic infections that are hard to treat given the nature of medication and drug adherence required to clear the causative organism from the body. Precisely, elderly patients on oral diabetic drugs may fail to adhere to the stringent regimen administered for the treatment of Tuberculosis. Other physiologic alterations that result from Tuberculosis are acute renal failure, liver damage, and spinal diseases.