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When an individual is suspected of having tuberculosis, they must go through an entire checkup with a doctor/medical personnel. Firstly, the doctor will ask about the patient’s health history of infectious, diseases, TB exposure, etc. Some important factors that play a role in tuberculosis are the country of origin, age, occupation, etc. Furthermore, during the physical section of the examination, the doctor will be checking the patient's lymph nodes to see if there’s swelling, and they will also use a stethoscope to carefully monitor the sounds of the lungs as the person is breathing.

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One of the most commonly used diagnostic tools for tuberculosis is a skin test. During the skin test, a patient is injected just below the skin of the inside forearm with a small dose of a substance called PPD tuberculin. Within 48-72 hours of the injection, a health care professional will be inspecting the arm for any swelling at the injected area. In most cases, if there is a hard, raised red bump, the patient most likely has been infected with tuberculosis. The size of the bump will determine how significant the test results are. On the other hand, sometimes skin tests can be wrong, indicating false information. It may show signs of tuberculosis in an individual who has not been affected, but it can also show that certain people don’t have the disease when they actually do. False-negative results may happen in certain individuals such as children, elderly citizens, people with AIDS and more.  This is due to the fact that certain people might not respond properly to the tuberculosis skin test. Additionally, a false-negative result may also occur if a person who has recently been infected with the diseases, but the bacteria hasn’t reached the immune system yet.

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The most common treatment of tuberculosis is by using medications, but tuberculosis takes a longer time to treat compared to other types of bacterial infections. The type of medication, length of treatment, and dosage depend on an individual's age, overall health, the infection’s location in the body, type of TB, etc. Usually, people with tuberculosis are prescribed to take antibiotics for about 6-9 months. Some scientific researchers suggest that shorter terms of treatment with combined medications/antibiotics could be more effective in keeping latent TB from becoming active TB. This would also help reduce the risks of side effects. If a person has latent TB, they most likely will only need to take one type of drug, whereas a person with active tuberculosis will need several drugs at once. Some of the most common medications used to treat tuberculosis are…

• Isoniazid

• Rifampin

• Ethambutol

• Pyrazinamide

 

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It is very uncommon for people to have serious side effects due to tuberculosis treatments, but they can be very dangerous if they do occur. This is because tuberculosis can be highly toxic to your liver. It is important to get medical attention if you are an individual infected with TB and has been experiencing any of the following.

Some of the side effects are

• Nausea or vomiting

• Dark urine

• A fever lasting more than 3 days

• Loss of appetite

• Yellow colour to your skin