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You might be referred to a doctor who specializes in infectious diseases or lung diseases (pulmonologist). If you suspect you have tuberculosis, contact your primary care doctor. Talking to someone such as a therapist might help you develop coping strategies. Denial, anger and frustration are normal when you must deal with something as challenging as tuberculosis. Your physical health can affect your mental health. A health care worker gives you your medication so that you don't have to remember to take it on your own.Įxplore Mayo Clinic studies testing new treatments, interventions and tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage this condition. Stopping treatment too soon or skipping doses can allow the bacteria that are still alive to become resistant to those drugs, leading to TB that is much more dangerous and difficult to treat.Ī program called directly observed therapy (DOT) can help people stick to their treatment regimen.
#Negative tb test full#
Don't stop taking your TB drugs - you must finish the full course of therapy and take the medications exactly as prescribed by your doctor. When taking these medications, call your doctor immediately if you have any of the following:Īfter a few weeks, you won't be contagious and you might start to feel better. All tuberculosis medications can be toxic to your liver. Serious side effects of TB drugs aren't common but can be dangerous when they do occur. Some drugs might be added to therapy to counter drug resistance, including: Some types of TB are developing resistance to these medications as well. If you have drug-resistant TB, a combination of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones and injectable medications, such as amikacin or capreomycin (Capastat), are generally used for 20 to 30 months. The most common medications used to treat tuberculosis include: Active tuberculosis, particularly if it's a drug-resistant strain, will require several drugs at once. If you have latent tuberculosis, you might need to take only one or two types of TB drugs.
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The exact drugs and length of treatment depend on your age, overall health, possible drug resistance and where the infection is in your body. For active tuberculosis, you must take antibiotics for at least six to nine months. If you have latent TB, your doctor might recommend treatment with medication if you're at high risk of developing active TB. Getting results of these tests can take four to eight weeks. This helps your doctor choose the medications that are most likely to work. Sputum samples can also be used to test for drug-resistant strains of TB. If your chest X-ray shows signs of tuberculosis, your doctor might take samples of your sputum - the mucus that comes up when you cough. This might show white spots in your lungs where your immune system has walled off TB bacteria, or it might reveal changes in your lungs caused by active tuberculosis.
#Negative tb test skin#
If you've had a positive skin test, your doctor is likely to order a chest X-ray or a CT scan. A blood test might be useful if you're at high risk of TB infection but have a negative response to the skin test, or if you've recently received the BCG vaccine. These tests require only one office visit. These tests measure your immune system's reaction to TB bacteria. Blood testsīlood tests can confirm or rule out latent or active tuberculosis. This tuberculosis vaccine is seldom used in the United States but is widely used in countries with high TB infection rates.įalse-negative results also can occur. You can have a false-positive result if you've been vaccinated recently with the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. It can also indicate that people don't have TB when they do. Sometimes, it suggests that people have TB when they don't. The size of the bump determines whether the test results are significant. A hard, raised red bump means you're likely to have TB infection.
#Negative tb test professional#
Within 48 to 72 hours, a health care professional will check your arm for swelling at the injection site.