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Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection caused by a bacterium (germ), and usually affects the lungs, but can affect any part of the body
How do you catch TB?
TB bacteria are coughed or sneezed into the air by people with active TB disease. If you breathe in TB bacteria they can then multiply in your lungs. To catch TB you normally need close and prolonged contact with a person who has active TB in their lungs, so the people most likely to be infected are those in the same house or same family
What are the tests for TB?
A blood test is used for people over the age of 18, this takes 3 to 5 days for a result. For people under 18 a tiny amount of TB bacterium is injected under the skin on the arm, and then 2 days later a trained nurse examines the injection site and can tell by the reaction on the skin whether you have TB
How is TB treated?
Once TB is diagnosed you will be started on a course of antibiotics - usually for 4 to 6 months because the TB bacterium can take a long time to destroy. It is likely that anyone you live in close contact with will be tested too, to make sure they have not caught TB
What are the symptoms of TB?
A cough lasting more than three weeks is often a first symptom.
Other common symptoms are: fever, sweats, feeling unwell, weight loss, pains in the chest, and poor appetite
If not treated complications often develop and cause many problems affecting different areas of the body; shortness of breath, coughing blood, lymph gland swelling, diarrhoea, bone pain, joint swelling, inflammation around the heart, kidney and bladder infection, rashes, and even meningitis (inflammation around the brain)
LSMP screening programme
When patients register with us who have come to the UK from affected countries* we will give them information about TB testing, and will then write to ask them to attend an appointment for a test. The test is quick, simple, and free, and the results are available in 2 to 5 days. If the result is positive you will receive free treatment. You do not have to leave the UK
*We currently screen where the incidence of TB is more than 160 per 100,000 people in the country of origin)
Source: AW LSMP
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