![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Things you may want to know about Tuberculosis, other than that I can't spell it:
If you have a cough for more than three weeks, go to a doctor. If you grew up in Ireland or the UK or the States, you probably had your BCGs - an immunisation. But this immunisation is only partially effective and only for about 10 or 15 years.
You can have latent or dormant TB: the bug is in your system but your immune system currently is keeping it in check. Countries where TB isn't widespread (Australia and NZ come to mind) won't worry about latent TB, as it isn't infectious. However, if your immune system has to start doing a few things at once, or your body generally gets put under a lot of stress, it could easily turn into active TB. One particular example of putting your body under a lot of stress involves living in Galway (and you think i was drinking in Melbourne!) which is why the Irish public health will do something about latent TB: namely, antibiotics for three or six months.
If you've active TB, you get put into isolation until you're no longer contaigous: could be two weeks, could be a year. You also have to go on the antibiotics, for up to a year. These antibiotics are incredibly bad for the liver, so no drinking while you're taking them; your liver also has to be working properly before you even start them.
Congratulations on my pink and spongey lung tissue were slightly premature I'm afraid: I've got latent TB after all, and am waiting for the results of my liver function tests before I start on the drugs.
One thing I don't get is the attitude towards TB round here. It's like it's a moral failing to have caught it. Also, no one believes that I could be not contagious. They get that it's serious, but don't realise that it's so serious that if I was contagious, I'd be in isolation. I was amused that Spiddal, one of the towns near here, was so named because it was where you went to recuperate and Ospideal is the Irish for hospital.
You can have latent or dormant TB: the bug is in your system but your immune system currently is keeping it in check. Countries where TB isn't widespread (Australia and NZ come to mind) won't worry about latent TB, as it isn't infectious. However, if your immune system has to start doing a few things at once, or your body generally gets put under a lot of stress, it could easily turn into active TB. One particular example of putting your body under a lot of stress involves living in Galway (and you think i was drinking in Melbourne!) which is why the Irish public health will do something about latent TB: namely, antibiotics for three or six months.
If you've active TB, you get put into isolation until you're no longer contaigous: could be two weeks, could be a year. You also have to go on the antibiotics, for up to a year. These antibiotics are incredibly bad for the liver, so no drinking while you're taking them; your liver also has to be working properly before you even start them.
Congratulations on my pink and spongey lung tissue were slightly premature I'm afraid: I've got latent TB after all, and am waiting for the results of my liver function tests before I start on the drugs.
One thing I don't get is the attitude towards TB round here. It's like it's a moral failing to have caught it. Also, no one believes that I could be not contagious. They get that it's serious, but don't realise that it's so serious that if I was contagious, I'd be in isolation. I was amused that Spiddal, one of the towns near here, was so named because it was where you went to recuperate and Ospideal is the Irish for hospital.