Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a germ spread through the air. When people with infectious TB cough or sneeze, germs are released into the air and anyone nearby is at risk of breathing the air-borne TB germs into their lungs. These TB germs usually attack the lungs. They can also affect other parts of the body such as the brain, reproductive organs, kidneys, bones, or joints.
If you require additional information about TB, please contact Yukon Communicable Disease at 667-8323.
Inactive TB: TB infection
When you are first infected with the TB germ, you don’t usually get sick right away. Sometimes an individual’s immune system may kill the TB germs. If the immune system doesn't kill the TB bacteria, the bacteria can remain alive but inactive in the body. This is called TB infection. A person with TB infection is not sick and cannot spread TB to others. However, the TB germ can become active at any time especially if the immune system weakens.
Adults with TB infection have about a 10 % chance of developing TB disease during their lifetime. Serious illness, diabetes, poor eating habits, heavy drinking, becoming old, are all things that can cause the immune system to weaken causing the TB germ to become active.
Active TB: TB disease
Active TB means the TB germ in the body has become active and is causing TB disease.
People with both TB and HIV infection have a much greater chance of developing TB disease. You may or may not feel sick, but when you have active TB germs in your body, you are contagious to those around you.
What are the signs of TB?
Some signs of TB may include loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, fever or night sweats. If TB is in the lungs, symptoms also include a bad cough that lasts longer than 2 weeks; shortness of breath, chest pain, or coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm).
How do I know if I have TB disease?
If you feel sick, see your doctor or your local health nurse.
How do they test for TB?
Tests like skin tests, chest x-rays, or sputum tests will determine if the TB germ is active in your body.
What happens to someone with TB disease (active TB)?
If you have TB disease, you need special medication to kill the TB germ that is active in your body. Without this medication, a person with TB disease can die. Most people with TB disease are hospitalized until the person is not infectious to others. In the hospital they are kept in a special isolation room to protect other patients and health-care workers from becoming infected with TB. They are asked to wear a mask if they have to leave this room. Health-care workers wear masks when caring for them.
Treatment of TB disease.
TB can be cured. Special antibiotics have cured thousands of people with TB disease in Canada. The most common drugs used to fight TB are:
- Isoniazid (INH)
- Pyrazinamide (PZA)
- Rifampin
- Ethambutol
Your doctor will determine the best antibiotics for you. Antibiotics must be taken for at least six months to kill all the TB bacteria. Taking more than one antibiotic at a time prevents drug-resistant TB.
It is VERY IMPORTANT to keep taking TB drugs to complete treatment, otherwise drug-resistant TB may develop. Some people with TB don’t finish all their pills. This is often because once they start to take the pills;; they feel better and don’t think they need them any more. They think they are cured but just because they feel better, it doesn’t mean the disease is gone. TB germs are very difficult to get rid of. Until your pills are all gone, the germs are still active in your body.
Usually after a few weeks, the person is no longer infectious to others and most times can to back to their normal routine as soon as they feel up to it.
Contact tracing
Contact tracing is done to find and test family, friends and coworkers to look for the spread of TB germs.
A person with infectious TB disease may spread TB infection to others. The job of public health is not only to help the person with infectious TB disease get better, but also to help others that the person may have infected. This helps stop the spread of TB.
Public health workers talk to the person with TB disease to find out who they spend time with every day. Family members and close friends are the first contacts that public health will talk with and look for TB infection in.
Public health workers spend a lot of time and effort tracking down the contacts of people who have infectious TB disease. Thanks to their efforts, TB is rare in Canada!