Testing For Tuberculosis

How do you know if you have tuberculosis? If you or your health care provider think you may have tuberculosis, a medical evaluation can be set up which can involve physical examinations, TB tests, and chest X-rays.

The Physical examination will check for symptoms of TB which may include:

• fever
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue
• chest pain
• coughing for 3 weeks or more
• coughing up blood

This examination will also look into other illnesses or infections that a patient may have which could affect the TB infection, such as HIV

There are two types of TB tests which can determine if you have the infection.

1. The Tuberculin skin test involves injecting a small amount of fluid into the arm of a patient. After 2 to 3 days, the patient's arm will be looked at to see if a reaction occurred. If the injected area is raised or swollen, this patient is likely to have TB.

   

   here, the health care provider measure the size of swelling/raising caused by the skin test fluid (cdc)

2. With a TB blood test, a patients blood is drawn and taken to a laboratory and presented with TB bacteria to measure the reaction of the person's immune system. If there is no reaction, it is likely that this patient does not have active or latent TB.

   

   cdc

Chest X-rays are used to look for abnormalities such as lesions that may appear with TB within the lungs. By themselves, these X-rays are not enough to determine if a person has TB, but they can help to rule out the possibility of a pulmonary TB infection. 

While difficult to spot with the untrained eye, this image demonstrates the ability to determine if a person has pulmonary TB through the use of x-rays.

                                     

Acitve Tuberculosis Treatment Plans

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Now that you are familiar with some basic information about Tuberculosis, we can focus on the commonly used treatment plan which combats this disease. The brief information provided about this treatment plans may seem intimidating or discouraging but do not worry! If you follow the plan that your physician makes just for you, you can avoid most problems and fully recover from TB! 

***It should be noted that this blog will focus on the typical treatment plan for active TB. If you have latent TB, are pregnant, or suffer from HIV and other medical conditions, your treatment may be very different than the following! Be sure to talk to your doctor about any pre-existing conditions that you may have!***

TREATMENT FACTS

• Typically, Tuberculosis is fought with a strict regiment of medicine
• This regiment will likely last from 6 to 9 months, at which point the disease should treated!
• The first line of defense of drugs act as the core of the treatment plan, and they include isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), ethambutol (EMB), and pyrazinamide (PZA).
• There are 2 phases to the treatment plan: the Initial Phase (the first 2 months) and the Continuation Phase (the last 4 to 7 months, depending on other conditions)
• The treatment guidelines as established by the World Health Organization are as follows: 



dept.washington.edu

• All of these drugs can be taken by mouth in pill form
• Side effects of these drugs are not common but they can be damaging if they arise! Talk to your doctor immediately if you experience any of these side effects: vomiting, lack of hunger, yellowing skin, dark urine, or a fever lasting three days or more. 
• After a few weeks of this treatment plan you may not be contagious anymore
• You MUST continue to take all your prescribed medication at the correct times until you have finished the prescription! This is the most important thing you can do to increase your chances of a full recovery!

Like always, do not be afraid to ask your doctor any questions you may have about your treatment plan! It is very important that you know what pills to take, when to take them, and tips to remember to take them, and your physician will be happy to assist you with this!
For more information, you can check out this CDC pamphlet, which discusses how to stay on track with your TB medicine.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

If you have recently been diagnosed with Tuberculosis, you may be feeling quite emotional. Whether you are confused, nervous, scared, upset, or a combination of those, there are many ways help relieve this anxiousness. You could seek emotional support through family and community members. You could also try to learn about TB disease through various mediums. However, one of the the best ways to find comfort after hearing this news is to talk with you health provider.

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What can you talk about with your health care provider though? Your doctors and nurses are there to inform you as well as support you and see you through your fight against this disease. If you are feeling confused, scared or uninformed, your health care workers should be the first people you seek for information and relief. When the time comes however, you may be unsure of what questions to ask or what answers you are looking for when talking to your doctor. Therefore, This post seeks to list 10 important questions (that have not been completely addressed in previous posts) you may want to ask your doctor!


1)  What symptoms can I expect while infected with TB disease?

2) What sort of medical tests can I expect to take and what will these tests do?

3) Is surgery a likely scenario?

4) What kind of treatment plan will I be put on?

5) What type of complications may arise?

6) How can I avoid these complications?

7) Do I have any pre-existing conditions that may affect my treatments?

8) What is my expected timeline when being treated with TB?

9) Are there any side effects of TB drugs that I may take?

10) How often should I take my TB medication?

Answers to these questions may vary by patient so your doctor will have the best answers for you!

          

                               

TB Prevention

If you have recently been diagnosed with TB, you may feel fear of spreading this dangerous bacteria to friends and loved ones. Also, if you have a friend or family member who has come down with TB disease, you may want to help them with their treatment, but at the same time you may feel worried about exposing yourself. This post will go into details about how to avoid spreading this disease while still allowing for the close comfort and support that loved ones have to offer.

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To begin, the first thing you should do after being diagnosed with Tuberculosis is to talk with your doctor about the people that you feel have come in close contact with you before you started your treatment and may have passed on the TB germs to. By thinking about these people and notifying your healthcare provider, you can allow them to get tested for TB and remove any worries or fear that you have harmed others! Below are tips provided by the CDC to help you when having this discussion with your doctor.

CDC Pamphlet

After you have gone over your contacts with your healthcare provider, there are other simple steps you can take to help ensure you don't infect those around you:

• Follow your entire medication regiment! this may be the most important thing you do, both for yourself and those around you! If you don't follow the medication guidelines set out for you by your doctor, the disease can easily worsen and you may stay infectious for much longer. 
• Avoid leaving your house. This will ensure that the disease does not spread to random people.
• Stay in a ventilated area. This is important because TB bacteria can spread easier in a room with no air movement.
• Cover your mouth or wear a mask. When sneezing, coughing, or laughing, others can inhale the released bacteria and become infected with TB. This can be avoided through the use of a mask. 

By following these tips and suggestions, you will find that you feel much better about the possibility of spreading this disease to those close to you.

For more information about the protection of others from TB, check out this Informational CDC pamphlet and this helpful mayoclic.org page! Both of these resources can be very useful when seeking prevention tips.

An Introduction to Tuberculosis

This blog has been made to provide information to those who have contracted Tuberculosis, their friends and family members, as well as people who would like to learn more about this disease.

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is an infectious bacterial disease which has been affecting humans for about 5,000 years now. It may be scary to hear that you or a loved one has been diagnosed with TB disease, but with the help of modern technology and a well-developed treatment plan, tuberculosis is curable and preventable! Here are some quick facts to help you start to learn about TB.

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Now lets take a more in-depth look. Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria known as Mycobacterium tubercolosis. This bacteria can be spread when a diseased individual coughs, sneezes, or even speaks. When the bacteria enters the air and people breath this contaminated air in, the bacteria can infiltrate the lungs and infect these people as well. Over 2 million people throughout the world are currently infected with this bacteria. Fortunately, the majority of these people will never fall ill to TB disease. The video below gives some great educational insight on why this is so.

   

As you saw, people who are infected with TB bacteria may either have a latent TB infection (where there are no symptoms present and TB bacteria cannot be spread to others) or a TB disease. If one has developed a TB disease, it is because their immune system is too weak to keep the bacteria from spreading throughout their body. People who may have weak immune systems (and are therefore more susceptible to TB disease) might include:

• Children
• HIV/AIDS infected individuals
• Substance abusers
• People with cancer
• People with kidney disease
• People with Leukemia

The picture below demonstrates some of the symptoms that occur with pulmonary TB disease.

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Remember that TB disease can spread throughout the body! If left untreated, the TB bacteria can spread throughout the body and affect the brain, lymph nodes, bones, heart, among other tissues and organs. 

If you have TB disease or believe you may have contracted a latent TB infection, please talk to your doctor or seek medical attention if you have not already! Diagnosis and treatment plans, which will be discussed in later blog posts, are crucial in both preventing the spread and curing tuberculosis. 

Feel free to check out this CDC site dedicated to Tuberculosis, where you can find additional stats, facts, and much more information.

You can also go to the World Health Organization's Tuberculosis page, where you can learn more about the disease and discover what action is taking place throughout the world in order to effectively fight this disease.

Finally, if you or a loved one have been diagnosed with TB disease and are looking for extra social support, this website allows people to share and discuss their experience with TB disease, and it may help to see the success and feel the support of others.