Tuberculosis(TB) care
Tuberculosis (TB) is a life-threatening disease that is thought to be three million years old. It’s caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which was discovered in the 19th century. About 100 years later, the first antibiotics to treat tuberculosis started to be used.
If you’re diagnosed with TB, we’ll provide the testing and treatment you need to reduce your risk from this serious disease.
What is tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis can affect different parts of the body. The most common kind is pulmonary tuberculosis, which affects the lungs and throat. When it affects other body parts such as the spine, bones, lymph nodes, or skin, it’s referred to as extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
Pulmonary TB spreads through airborne droplets from an infected person. When they talk, laugh, cough, or sneeze near you, you may inhale infected droplets and become infected yourself.
Although TB is contagious, you have to spend a lot of time close to an infected person to catch it. You’re most likely to get it from friends, family members, or coworkers.
Tuberculosis isn’t spread through brief contacts such as shaking hands or from touching a surface that’s been touched by an infected person.
Types of tuberculosis
It’s possible to have latent TB which means you test positive for the bacteria but you don’t have symptoms, don’t feel sick and can’t spread the disease to others.
People who have symptoms, do feel sick, and have chest X-rays that show signs of TB infection can spread the disease to others. This type of tuberculosis is called TB disease.
Tuberculosis symptoms
When you have pulmonary TB disease, you often feel very sick. Some symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis are like those of other lung diseases.
Other common symptoms of pulmonary TB include:
- Chest pain
- Chills
- Cough lasting longer than three weeks
- Coughing up blood or sputum
- Fatigue (severe tiredness)
- Fever
- Lack of appetite
- Night sweats
- Swollen glands
- Weight loss
If you’re experiencing chest pain, call 911 because it can be a sign of other serious conditions.
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis symptoms differ depending on the part of the body affected.
Complications from tuberculosis
Potential complications from TB infection include:
- Infection or damage of your bones, spinal cord, brain, lymph nodes or skin
- Inflammation of the tissues around your heart
- Joint damage
- Liver or kidney problems
- Lung damage
TB risk factors
There’s a higher risk of catching TB for people who have compromised immune systems. Some of the reasons for having a compromised immune system are:
- Being diagnosed with head or neck cancer
- Being malnourished or having low body weight
- Living with diabetes
- Living with HIV or AIDS
- Receiving chemotherapy
- Suffering from kidney disease
- Using tobacco
Taking some medications for Crohn’s disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis or to prevent rejection of an organ transplant also increases the risk of acquiring TB.
Tuberculosis testing & diagnosis
Diagnosing tuberculosis starts with either a skin test or a blood test. The blood test requires a blood sample that’s sent to a lab.
Skin tests for TB involve injecting a fluid (tuberculosis antigen) beneath your skin on the inside of your forearm. After 48 to 72 hours, you’ll need to return to your doctor so they can measure the size of your reaction to the injection.
If your blood test or skin test is positive for tuberculosis, we’ll order a CT scan or chest X-rays to see if you have signs of infection in your lungs. We may also take a sample of coughed-up mucus (sputum) to have it cultured for TB bacteria. Results from sputum tests may take up to eight weeks.
Tuberculosis treatment
Based on your symptoms and the results of testing for TB infection, we’ll recommend tuberculosis treatment options based on the most current guidelines.
People with latent TB need treatment to prevent it from progressing to TB disease later in life. We don’t have a way of predicting which people will develop TB disease. And things like developing diabetes or just getting older may increase your vulnerability to TB disease. So it’s important to treat latent TB when it’s discovered.
The schedule for TB treatment for people with latent TB is a once-a-day antibiotic medication taken for three to nine months.
For active TB disease, you’ll receive a combination of antibacterial drugs for six to 12 months.
People who are infected with drug-resistant TB receive more medications for a course of 20 to 30 months.
Regardless of which treatment is prescribed, it’s important to finish all your medication to ensure complete treatment. When people don’t finish medications, they risk developing drug-resistant TB which would require longer treatment with more medications. Taking more medications increases the potential for side effects. And drug-resistant TB may not respond to available medications so having it increases your risk of complications.
Side effects from TB medications
Side effects from the antibiotics you’ll take for TB may often include nausea, other digestive upsets and fatigue. Other common side effects are:
- Chills
- Confusion
- Headache
- Jaundice (yellowing of skin or eyes)
- Muscle or joint pain
- Numbness and tingling in hands and feet
- Painful or swollen joints
- Skin rash
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