How did you catch TB?

[hottchoc]

I just thought this was an interesting question x

[Dw3832]

It's actually not a very relevant question and here is why. There are common scenarios that make a person more PRONE to succumb to the TB virus. Many people carry it unknowingly for the entirety of their lives and it never activates. In my case, my Doctor says I am a true medical mystery. I fit no "expected norm" and my lifestyle choices fit no "at risk" parameters. Yet, I still got it. Why? We will never know. I went my entire life a completely healthy individual, rare to ever have a cold even, so when my cough started I ignored it -- for 3 months. Doctors never tested me for TB because I had ZERO symptoms save for a dry cough that was really just super bothersome. It was only after I cleared ever test that they finally did an xray, then a bronc to take a sample of the area around the cavity they discovered. My doctor said later that he sincerely thought I had cancer. The specialists all went down different paths and came up with nothing. The decision to do a Quantiferon Blood test was a last ditch effort, ordered by my Infectious Disease doctor. It came back positive.

So you see -- how we got it, is going to either be a highly personal question to some or like in my case, a question that I will never have an answer for.

[hottchoc in reply to Dw3832]

Yes DW - I completely understand what you have said because my story is exactly the same as yours! And that’s really why I asked the question, purely because most think this terrible disease is because of the people around us where medical help is hard to get, or from being in an unfortunate situation of being homeless... and then there are people like you and I where it comes as a total shock and a surprise of life. I know we will never truly know but our circumstances in life can sometimes dictate and sometimes not.

[Hidden in reply to Dw3832]

I would have thought that the quantiferon gold test should have been the first test to be carried out?????? This again underlines how much info doctors have regarding Tuberculosis. Regarding the old wives tale re underprivileged and slum conditions whereby TB might thrive seems nonsense because many pretty young girls were unfortunate and died in the thirties and early forties and looked quite well off from decent families who were not 'hard up'. They did not come from what was deemed , slum areas.

Those who were a bit rough so to speak got over umpteen infections because their bodies were tough and they had a great deal of resistance to anything that was trying to kill them.

Resistance is the key word here and doctors are a prime example of those who ignor waht their patients say to them. This is especially true regarding us old ones who are verticle and look well. If a dog wags it's tail it does not mean it does not have anything wrong with it! Ask any Vet!!!!!! Vets I hear study two more years than doctors. I wonder if that is because an animal cannot give the vet any clues by speaking to them?

[Leelou1984]

I'm a nurse and work in a nonventalated area looking after patients for 12 hours and was told no way I got it from work but possible a bus when I was in Mexico...... I was told you had to be in contact with someone for at Least 8 hours to contract the disease.... I was at work but never on that 5 minutes bus ride in Mexico!

[hottchoc]

Hi leelou

I wonder why they are being so dismissive of you. To be honest no one will ever completely prove where you got it from, but yes your place of work is definitely one of them! Like you they cannot prove either way, but you certainly do have an argument for it. These people who pull ranks because they have high position can no longer get away with ‘pushing’ us around. So might I suggest you talk to your TB nurse. Also, it is no longer thought that it is 8 hours, research is suggesting it may be a lot sooner. But whatever it is, there are many articles out there telling us how hospital staff are so vulnerable to getting TB than anyone else. Hope you are ok x