Please help i cant find out anything! im freaking out!!!?

Question

my husband is active military and just called me from work and told me his tuberculosis (tb) test came back positive! all i know is its highly contagious. Me and my husband share everything! So do i have it too? Are we gonna die? what next? please please help!!!

Answer 1

Hello,

I'm sorry about this.  It would be an unusual story in the british military.  When I was with the british military, (I was a military doctor),  we used to test all new entrants to see if they were susceptible to TB.  If they were, they got a preventive vaccination.

You don't get TB in the blood, it has to be infecting an organ somewhere, and he and you both need to be told where that is.  Most commonly it's in the lungs, but it could be in lots of places,- - the bowel, the gall bladder, kidney, bone etc.  His docs will need to find this out, if they don't know already.

TB is not highly infectious, in fact it's not that infectious at all.  The 'bowel-infection TB' sort, tends to be the cattle ('bovine') type, passed on in milk, - - if he has been drinking un-pasteurized milk abroad.

The 'lung' sort tends to be person-to-person, but you need to be in prolonged contact, over time,  - - it's just not that infectious.

Without knowing which part of his body is infected, - - there are excellent drug treatments these days for TB, which cure it.  They have 2 disadvantages, (1) you need to take 3 different TB-antibiotics at a time, often, 'coz the TB germ has gotten drug-resistant, and  (2) tablets need to be taken over many months, sometimes years.

TB is a 'chronic' disease, that is to say one that goes on for a long time at a low level, in most people.  An 'acute' disease is like a cold or sore throat, where it comes on suddenly, there is no doubt at all that you're ill, and it is gone inside a few weeks at most.

I doubt you have any established TB infection at all.  TB mostly affects people who are 'under the weather,' who are already poorly with something else, or who have a low immunity for some other reason.  If you haven't been stressed abroad and are perfectly healthy, I think you could easily throw any TB infection off, without drugs, and without even knowing you'd had it.  

Remember that most people who skin-test positive for 'TB-resistance,' do so because they had  a very mild TB infection as a child, which they threw off.

** HOWEVER, you clearly need to take this very seriously, and to go chasing your doctors if they don't come chasing you.  **

I guess you'll be advised to have a skin-test for TB, called a 'Heaf' test or a 'Mantoux' test.  The results are expressed a bit confusingly, - - they are usually expressed as 'negative' or 'positive' depending on how much the skin reacts to the TB-protein, so that 'negative=the skin does not react at all.'  The 3 possible skin-test results and their interpretations are:

- - Skin test is entirely negative (the skin is un-reactive) = you have never come into contact with a TB germ in your life.  

- - Skin test is mildly positive (reactive) = you have come into contact with a TB germ at some time in your life, - -  you threw it off, and you are now resistant to TB.  

- - Skin test is very strongly positive (very reactive) = you have TB infection now, somewhere in your body.

If you skin-test as TB-resistant, probably nothing needs to be done.  If  you skin-test as 'never having been in contact with a TB germ,'   - I think you will either be offered a 'BCG' anti-TB vaccination, OR you will be advised to take a once-only dose of a strong TB-antibiotic.

'BCG' is short for 'Bacille Calmette-Guerin,' - - it is a live vaccine of a very-much-weakened strain of the TB bacillus, which was first developed in France.  Developing immunity to the BCG germ,  confers excellent protection against fully-active 'field' TB, (and also against Leprosy, which is a close cousin of the TB germ).

I hope this is of some help.  American practice may differ a bit.

Best wishes,

Belliger    (retired uk gp)

Answer 2

No, you're not going to die. There are treatments for tb. Just make an appointment with your doc ASAP and take it from there.

Answer 3

Your husband will be just fine if he receives adequate treatment.  He will need to be on 4 drugs for 3-6 months and then 2 drugs for up to a year.  It's a very long process, but eventually the organism will be cleared from the body.

As far as YOU go, you need to get tested.  If you test positive, then you can start medication ASAP.  Are you displaying symptoms?

Just because you are exposed does not mean you will develop the disease.  I have been exposed to active TB countless times, and I still have a negative TB skin test!

It is not a death sentence by any means!  Remain calm.  Find a good doctor, and all will be well.

Take care.

Answer 4

Sally has the answer.  Now go, talk to the doctor and please use your common sense.  You'll be okay, if you follow the directions given you by the doctor - the one who knows.

All he Best