TB diagnosis and Treatment

TB diagnosis and Treatment

Diagnosis

TB is a very dangerous and serious disease. There are about millions of new cases of TB diagnosed each year around the world. Also, there are almost 3 million people who have TB but have not been diagnosed. It is really important for people to monitor their health and be aware of TB infection. If you have symptoms such as unexplained weight loss, night sweat, fever, fatigue, chest pain and coughing for weeks or even coughing up blood, you should suspect your have the TB and go see the doctor.

Usually not all of the people who have TB bacteria in their bodies will be sick. There are two types of TB infection: latent TB infection and active TB infection. It is hard to diagnosis latent TB infection because there are no symptoms. On the other hand, active TB infection is much easier to diagnosis than the latent TB infection. However, sometimes misdiagnosis can occur because the symptoms of active TB infection are very similar to the symptoms of upper respiratory infection, bronchitis, cold and pneumonia.

A TB skin test, also known as a PPD test, and a TB blood test are the two most commonly used ways to test for TB. For the TB skin test, the doctor will inject a small amount of liquid called tuberculin, a protein extract from cultures of TB bacteria, into the skin of your arm. The patients usually need to wait 48 to 72 hours for the test result. If you have a localized swelling at your injection area, it means you probably have the TB disease. However, the test result can be wrong. A negative test result could be a false negative, which means the individual could have TB; this occurs in 5% to 10% of patients, especially in patients who have HIV, children and elderly people. On the other hand, the ...

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