Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs

The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes.
Once rare in developed countries, tuberculosis infections began increasing in 1985, partly because of the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens a person’s immune system so it can’t fight the TB germs. In the United States, because of stronger control programs, tuberculosis began to decrease again in 1993, but remains a concern.
Many strains of tuberculosis resist the drugs most used to treat the disease. People with active tuberculosis must take several types of medications for many months to eradicate the infection and prevent development of antibiotic resistance.

:point_right:SYMPTOMS

Although your body may harbor the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, your immune system usually can prevent you from becoming sick. For this reason, doctors make a distinction between:

Latent TB.
In this condition, you have a TB infection, but the bacteria remain in your body in an inactive state and cause no symptoms. Latent TB, also called inactive TB or TB infection, isn’t contagious. It can turn into active TB, so treatment is important for the person with latent TB and to help control the spread of TB in general. An estimated 2 billion people have latent TB.

Active TB.
This condition makes you sick and can spread to others. It can occur in the first few weeks after infection with the TB bacteria, or it might occur years later.

Signs and symptoms of active TB include:

Coughing that lasts three or more weeks

Coughing up blood

Chest pain, or pain with breathing or coughing

Unintentional weight loss

Fatigue

Fever

Night sweats

Chills

Loss of appetite

Tuberculosis can also affect other parts of your body, including your kidneys, spine or brain. When TB occurs outside your lungs, signs and symptoms vary according to the organs involved. For example, tuberculosis of the spine may give you back pain, and tuberculosis in your kidneys might cause blood in your urine.

:point_right:When to see a doctor

See your doctor if you have a fever, unexplained weight loss, drenching night sweats or a persistent cough. These are often signs of TB, but they can also result from other medical problems. Your doctor can perform tests to help determine the cause.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who have an increased risk of tuberculosis be screened for latent TB infection. This recommendation includes:

People with HIV/AIDS

IV drug users

Those in contact with infected individuals

Health care workers who treat people with a high risk of TB

:point_right:CAUSES

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air. This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings.
Although tuberculosis is contagious, it’s not easy to catch. You’re much more likely to get tuberculosis from someone you live with or work with than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who’ve had appropriate drug treatment for at least two weeks are no longer contagious.

:point_right:HIV and TB

Since the 1980s, the number of cases of tuberculosis has increased dramatically because of the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Infection with HIV suppresses the immune system, making it difficult for the body to control TB bacteria. As a result, people with HIV are many times more likely to get TB and to progress from latent to active disease than are people who aren’t HIV positive.

:point_right:Drug-resistant TB

Another reason tuberculosis remains a major killer is the increase in drug-resistant strains of the bacterium. Since the first antibiotics were used to fight tuberculosis 60 years ago, some TB germs have developed the ability to survive, and that ability gets passed on to their descendants.
Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis emerge when an antibiotic fails to kill all of the bacteria it targets. The surviving bacteria become resistant to that particular drug and frequently other antibiotics as well. Some TB bacteria have developed resistance to the most commonly used treatments, such as isoniazid and rifampin.
Some strains of TB have also developed resistance to drugs less commonly used in TB treatment, such as the antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones, and injectable medications including amikacin, kanamycin and capreomycin. These medications are often used to treat infections that are resistant to the more commonly used drugs.

:point_right:RISK FACTORS

Anyone can get tuberculosis, but certain factors can increase your risk of the disease. These factors include:

:point_right:Weakened immune system

A healthy immune system often successfully fights TB bacteria, but your body can’t mount an effective defense if your resistance is low. A number of diseases and medications can weaken your immune system, including:

HIV/AIDS

Diabetes

End-stage kidney disease

Certain cancers

Cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy

Drugs to prevent rejection of transplanted organs

Some drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and psoriasis

Malnutrition

Very young or advanced age

:point_right:Traveling or living in certain areas

The risk of contracting tuberculosis is higher for people who live in or travel to countries that have high rates of tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis, such as:

Sub-Saharan Africa

India

China

Russia

Pakistan

:point_right:Poverty and substance abuse

Lack of medical care.
If you receive a low or fixed income, live in a remote area, have recently immigrated to the United States, or are homeless, you may lack access to the medical care needed to diagnose and treat TB.

Substance abuse.
IV drug use or alcohol abuse weakens your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to tuberculosis.

Tobacco use. Using tobacco greatly increases the risk of getting TB and dying of it.

:point_right:Where you work or live

Health care work.
Regular contact with people who are ill increases your chances of exposure to TB bacteria. Wearing a mask and frequent hand-washing greatly reduce your risk.

Living or working in a residential care facility.
People who live or work in prisons, immigration centers or nursing homes are all at a higher risk of tuberculosis. That’s because the risk of the disease is higher anywhere there is overcrowding and poor ventilation.

Living in a refugee camp or shelter.
Weakened by poor nutrition and ill health and living in crowded, unsanitary conditions, refugees are at especially high risk of tuberculosis infection.

:point_right:COMPLICATIONS

Without treatment, tuberculosis can be fatal. Untreated active disease typically affects your lungs, but it can spread to other parts of the body through your bloodstream. Examples of tuberculosis complications include:

Spinal pain.
Back pain and stiffness are common complications of tuberculosis.

Joint damage.
Tuberculous arthritis usually affects the hips and knees.

Swelling of the membranes that cover your brain (meningitis).
This can cause a lasting or intermittent headache that occurs for weeks. Mental changes also are possible.

Liver or kidney problems.
Your liver and kidneys help filter waste and impurities from your bloodstream. These functions become impaired if the liver or kidneys are affected by tuberculosis.

Heart disorders.
Rarely, tuberculosis can infect the tissues that surround your heart, causing inflammation and fluid collections that may interfere with your heart’s ability to pump effectively. This condition, called cardiac tamponade, can be fatal.

:point_right:PREPARING FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT

If you suspect that you have tuberculosis, contact your primary care doctor. You may be referred to a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases or lung diseases (pulmonologist).

:point_right:What you can do

Be aware of any pre-appointment restrictions.
At the time you make the appointment, be sure to ask if there’s anything you need to do in advance.

Write down any symptoms you’re experiencing,
including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.

Write down key personal information,
including any recent life changes or international travel.

Make a list of all medications,
vitamins or supplements that you’re taking.

Write down questions to askyour doctor.

Preparing a list of questions can help you make the most of your time with your doctor. For tuberculosis, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:

What’s the most likely cause of my symptoms?

Do I need any tests?

What treatments are available? Which do you recommend?

What if the treatment doesn’t work?

How long do I have to stay on the treatment?

How often do I need to follow up with you?

I have other health problems. How can I best manage these conditions together?

:point_right:What to expect from your doctor

Your doctor may ask some of the following questions:

What are your symptoms, and when did they start?

Does anyone you know have active tuberculosis?

Do you have HIV or AIDS?

Were you born in another country, or have you traveled in another country?

Have you ever lived with someone who had tuberculosis?

Were you vaccinated against tuberculosis as an infant?

Have you ever had tuberculosis or a positive skin test?

Have you ever taken medicine for TB? If so, what kind and for how long?

What kind of work do you do?

Do you use alcohol or recreational drugs?

:point_right:TESTS AND DIAGNOSIS

During the physical exam, your doctor will check your lymph nodes for swelling and use a stethoscope to listen carefully to the sounds your lungs make while you breathe.
The most commonly used diagnostic tool for tuberculosis is a simple skin test, though blood tests are becoming more commonplace. A small amount of a substance called PPD tuberculin is injected just below the skin of your inside forearm. You should feel only a slight needle prick.
Within 48 to 72 hours, a health care professional will check your arm for swelling at the injection site. A hard, raised red bump means you’re likely to have TB infection. The size of the bump determines whether the test results are significant.

:point_right:Results can be wrong

The TB skin test isn’t perfect. Sometimes, it suggests that people have TB when they really don’t. It can also indicate that people don’t have TB when they really do.
A false-positive test may happen if you’ve been vaccinated recently with the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. This tuberculosis vaccine is seldom used in the United States but is widely used in countries with high TB infection rates.
False-negative results may occur in certain populations — including children, older people and people with AIDS — who sometimes don’t respond to the TB skin test. A false-negative result can also occur in people who’ve recently been infected with TB, but whose immune systems haven’t yet reacted to the bacteria.

:point_right:Blood tests

Blood tests may be used to confirm or rule out latent or active tuberculosis. These tests use sophisticated technology to measure your immune system’s reaction to TB bacteria. QuantiFERON-TB Gold in-Tube test and T-Spot.TB test are two examples of TB blood tests.
These tests require only one office visit. A blood test may be useful if you’re at high risk of TB infection, but have a negative response to the skin test, or if you’ve recently received the BCG vaccine.

:point_right:Imaging tests

If you’ve had a positive skin test, your doctor is likely to order a chest X-ray or a CT scan. This may show white spots in your lungs where your immune system has walled off TB bacteria, or it may reveal changes in your lungs caused by active tuberculosis. CT scans provide more-detailed images than do X-rays.

:point_right:Sputum tests

If your chest X-ray shows signs of tuberculosis, your doctor may take samples of your sputum — the mucus that comes up when you cough. The samples are tested for TB bacteria.
Sputum samples can also be used to test for drug-resistant strains of TB. This helps your doctor choose the medications that are most likely to work. These tests can take four to eight weeks to be completed.

:point_right:TREATMENTS AND DRUGS

Medications are the cornerstone of tuberculosis treatment. But treating TB takes much longer than treating other types of bacterial infections.
With tuberculosis, you must take antibiotics for at least six to nine months. The exact drugs and length of treatment depend on your age, overall health, possible drug resistance, the form of TB (latent or active) and the infection’s location in the body.
Recent research suggests that a shorter term of treatment — four months instead of nine — with combined medication may be effective in keeping latent TB from becoming active TB. With the shorter course of treatment, people are more likely to take all their medication and the risk of side effects is lessened. Studies are ongoing.

:point_right:Most common TB drugs

If you have latent tuberculosis, you may need to take just one type of TB drug. Active tuberculosis, particularly if it’s a drug-resistant strain, will require several drugs at once. The most common medications used to treat tuberculosis include:

Isoniazid

Rifampin (Rifadin, Rimactane)

Ethambutol (Myambutol)

Pyrazinamide

If you have drug-resistant TB, a combination of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones and injectable medications, such as amikacin, kanamycin or capreomycin, are generally used for 20 to 30 months. Some types of TB are developing resistance to these medications as well.
A number of new drugs are being looked at as add-on therapy to the current drug-resistant combination treatment including:

Bedaquiline

Delamanid

PA-824

Linezolid

Sutezolid

:point_right:Medication side effects

Serious side effects of TB drugs aren’t common but can be dangerous when they do occur. All tuberculosis medications can be highly toxic to your liver. When taking these medications, call your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following:

Nausea or vomiting

Loss of appetite

A yellow color to your skin (jaundice)

Dark urine

A fever that lasts three or more days and has no obvious cause

:point_right:Completing treatment is essential

After a few weeks, you won’t be contagious and you may start to feel better. It might be tempting to stop taking your TB drugs. But it is crucial that you finish the full course of therapy and take the medications exactly as prescribed by your doctor. Stopping treatment too soon or skipping doses can allow the bacteria that are still alive to become resistant to those drugs, leading to TB that is much more dangerous and difficult to treat.
To help people stick with their treatment, a program called directly observed therapy (DOT) is recommended. In this approach, a health care worker administers your medication so that you don’t have to remember to take it on your own.

:point_right:LIFESTYLE AND HOME REMEDIES

If you test positive for latent TB infection, your doctor may advise you to take medications to reduce your risk of developing active tuberculosis. The only type of tuberculosis that is contagious is the active variety, when it affects the lungs. So if you can prevent your latent tuberculosis from becoming active, you won’t transmit tuberculosis to anyone else.

:point_right:Protect your family and friends

If you have active TB, keep your germs to yourself. It generally takes a few weeks of treatment with TB medications before you’re not contagious anymore. Follow these tips to help keep your friends and family from getting sick:

Stay home.
Don’t go to work or school or sleep in a room with other people during the first few weeks of treatment for active tuberculosis.

Ventilate the room.
Tuberculosisgerms spread more easily in small closed spaces where air doesn’t move. If it’s not too cold outdoors, open the windows and use a fan to blow indoor air outside.

Cover your mouth.
Use a tissue to cover your mouth anytime you laugh, sneeze or cough. Put the dirty tissue in a bag, seal it and throw it away.

Wear a mask.
Wearing a surgical mask when you’re around other people during the first three weeks of treatment may help lessen the risk of transmission.

:point_right:Finish your entire course of medication

This is the most important step you can take to protect yourself and others from tuberculosis. When you stop treatment early or skip doses, TB bacteria have a chance to develop mutations that allow them to survive the most potent TB drugs. The resulting drug-resistant strains are much more deadly and difficult to treat.

:point_right:Vaccinations

In countries where tuberculosis is more common, infants often are vaccinated with bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine because it can prevent severe tuberculosis in children. The BCG vaccine isn’t recommended for general use in the United States because it isn’t very effective in adults. Dozens of new TB vaccines are in various stages of development and testing.

:point_right:COPING AND SUPPORT

Treatment for tuberculosis is a complicated and lengthy process. But the only way to cure the disease is to stick with your treatment. You may find it helpful to have your medication given by a nurse or other health care professional so that you don’t have to remember to take it on your own. In addition, try to maintain your normal activities and hobbies and stay connected with family and friends.
Keep in mind that your physical health can affect your mental health. Denial, anger and frustration are normal when you must deal with something difficult and unexpected. At times, you may need more tools to deal with these or other emotions. Professionals, such as therapists or behavioral psychologists, can help you develop positive coping strategies.