Tuberculosis?!
Question:
Tuberculosis?
One of my wife's co workers was recently admitted to hospital due to TB. We have a toddler at home. Can anyone advise whether there is any danger? Should my wife go for a medical check up or take any precaution where our boy is concerned?
Answers:
TB is not a highly infectious disease. Transmission usually requires close, frequent and prolonged exposure to a person with active respiratory TB. Transmission of respiratory tuberculosis is mainly person-to-person by inhalation (airborne) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. Exposure to live MTB bacteria does not necessarily result in acquisition of MTB disease.
A risk assessment needs to be performed to assess your wife's risk. There must be someone at her place of employment (Staff Health, etc.); start with them. Also, is the TB respiratory or not? People can get admitted to hospital with TB in other parts of the body- e.g., bones. This type of TB is not infectious.
The city you live in has a TB Control program- this program has staff who identify possible contacts who would require follow up. For instance, they will interview the person with TB and find out who are the people they have spent the most time with, close quarters, etc. The testing will start with these people- they will get PPD tested as well as get chest x-rays. The number of people who come back with positive results from this 'round' of testing, will determine if further testing is necessary (e.g., if the person spent 24 hours a day with 6 people, and none of them tested positive, the likelihood of transmission is minimal and further testing likely won't occur).
The absolute risk of TB transmission occurring under any given circumstance is impossible to predict. However, there are some factors that appear to increase the likelihood of transmission. These include:
- Infectiousness of the case
- Duration and frequency of exposure to the infectious particles
- Environment in which the exposure occurs
- Virulence of the strain of M. tuberculosis involved