witb_sd

                                  Persistent cough

                                  Tiredness

                                  Weight loss

Loss of appetite

Fever {insert pics of ppl coughing etc. from prof }

Night Sweats

Coughing up blood

These symptoms can also occur with other types of lung disease and it is impotrant to see a doctor and let him/her determine whether or not you have the disease.
People with TB the disease may feel healthy or may not cough too much; but if you think that you might be exposed to tuberculosis then get tested for it A.S.A.P.

There are many different ways to find out if you have TB. The ones that we will be speaking about in the Mantoux skin test and the sputum test aswell as the chest x-ray.

THE SKIN TEST

A small amount of testing material is placed just under the top layers of the skin, usually on the arm just above the wrist. After a few days the nurse or whomever must check the arm to see if a bump has developed and measures the size of the bump. If the bump is of a certain size the test is positive and the person has TB infection.

Once the doctor knows that a person has TB infection he or she may want to determine if the person has TB disease. This is done by using several other tests including a chest X-ray and a test of a person's sputum (the material that is sometimes coughed up from the lungs).

You should get tested for TB often. Especially if you live in a high risk area, have the symptoms of the disease.

THE SPUTUM TEST

The patient is treated with steam therapy for the mucous to loosten in the lungs. Then physiotherapy is applied to the chest and back and the patient regurgitates sputum from the lungs.

The sputum specimen (not syliva) us stained and examined under a microscope to look for TB bacilli (sometimes referred to as AFB which stands for acid-fast bacilli and the way they are stained.

Or the sputum is made into a culture in which the tb bacilli grows if it is alive and present.

THE CHEST X-RAY

A chest x-ray is usually only necessary in suspects who cannot produce sputum and must be interpreted in the light of their history and clinical findings. It is only not used that often becuase it is slightly expensive. Yet it is much easier to see a tb infection if it is on an x-ray.