Living With Tuberculosis: Learn The Facts Now!

Risk Factors

Those at risk of developing tuberculosis are patients who have HIV or another illness that weakens the immune system, individuals who have close contact with a patient with active TB such as those living in the same house as a patient, and individuals caring for a patient with active TB, such as doctors and nurses. Other risk factors include individuals who live or work in crowded places such as prisons, nursing homes, homeless shelters or wherever individuals may have active tuberculosis, as well as individuals who abuse drugs and alcohol. Individuals with poor access to health care, where it is commonly seen in the developing world, as well as homeless individuals and migrant farm workers. As well, traveling to places where untreated TB is common puts an individual at risk, such as Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia. It is important to note individuals who are at a higher risk for developing tuberculosis should get tested once or twice a year.

Symptoms And Diagnosing Tuberculosis

Symptoms of active tuberculosis include a cough that contains thick, cloudy, and sometimes bloody mucus from the lungs, called sputum, for more than two weeks, tiredness and weight loss, night sweats and a fever, a rapid heartbeat, swelling of the lymph nodes, and shortness of breath and chest pain.

There are numerous ways for a doctor to diagnose a patient with tuberculosis. Doctors can typically find latent, or not active, TB by doing a tuberculin skin test, where tuberculosis antigens are injected under the skin. If the patient has TB bacteria within their body, a red bump will appear at the injection spot in two days. A blood test can also be performed to detect if a patient has tuberculosis. For doctors to discover pulmonary tuberculosis, they will often test a sample of mucus from the lungs to see if the TB bacteria are present there. Other tests may include further testing on sputum, or mucus from the lungs, other blood tests, or a chest X-ray to find pulmonary tuberculosis. To diagnose extrapulmonary TB, a doctor may take a sample of tissue, or a biopsy, to test as well as a CT scan or an MRI to get a clear visual of the inside the patient’s body.