What are the odds?!
Question: we just found out that my grandpa has tb and was at our house on christmas so we all have to go get tested. he also has to have his dog and bird put down. does anyone have any information on this sort of thing?
mom is a little worried cause we have all been coughing lately but that is most likely from a cold.
Answers: we just found out that my grandpa has tb and was at our house on christmas so we all have to go get tested. he also has to have his dog and bird put down. does anyone have any information on this sort of thing?
mom is a little worried cause we have all been coughing lately but that is most likely from a cold.
Here's the low down:
70% of people who get a heavy exposure to TB will not get infected at all. Of the 30% remaining, 5-10% will get TB in the first 2 years and 5-10% will get TB sometime after that. The remaining 80% of those infected will never get disease. If you do get TB, treatments are very effective these days and as long as you treat early, scarring and surgery is almost never heard of anymore.
You will get tested for TB by either taking blood and testing it or by putting a little bit of fluid under your skin (basically painless). If you get a positive test or a reaction on your skin (sort of like an allergy test), you've likely been exposed and infected. People who are infected can take pills (usually one called isoniazid or INH, sometimes with another pill called rifampin for 4 to 9 months) to reduce the chance of getting TB by 90% or more. The pills are generally harmless but have some side effects you'll hear about if you need them.
All things considered, it is unlikely that you got infected (less than 30%, worse case scenario), but you need to do the tests at the right time (6 weeks after you were exposed) to find out.
As for the dog and bird - this is really sad and I'm very sorry for you guys, but human TB doesn't infect birds or dogs, fortunately, so this is a bad coincidence. (there are other types of TB that infect birds and dogs, but not this type).
Hope this helped!
Exposure doesn't mean you've contracted it. Wait for the painless test results.
My father had a part of his lung removed many years ago and we never got it from him. Lived in the house together, etc.
And it is the cold and flu season.
omg! that is crazy where did she get TB from
i heard the bird flu is back and the plague ........
i for real hope it all turns out OK!!
go get tested its highly contagious but also highly treatable tb isnt the death sentence it was yrs ago but if you do have it the longer u have it the more scarred ur lungs will be they cant be repaired
he would have had to been coughing blood for you to get it