Tuberculosis Rapid Test

How does tuberculosis stick?

In some patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, so many tuberculosis bacteria are excreted into the sputum that there are a risk of infection in the immediate area.

When a person with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis coughs or speaks into the air, an aerosol containing tuberculosis bacteria is spread. When inhaling it, a person in the same condition is exposed to tuberculosis.

Only about a third of those exposed to tuberculosis are infected.
The risk of infection is affected by:

• closeness of the contact
• exposure time
• possible illnesses or medical treatments of the exposed person;
• amount of tuberculosis bacteria circulating into the air.

Young children are particularly susceptible to tuberculosis infection and severe forms of the disease when infected.

The majority of people infected with tuberculosis never show symptoms.

The first symptoms of the disease usually occur within two years of infection. However, they may not appear until decades later when immunity weakens due to aging, underlying diseases, or defective drug therapies.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Symptoms of tuberculosis include prolonged cough, months-long cough, mucus, deterioration in general condition, fatigue and fever, and coughing up blood. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by tuberculosis bacteria, in which a small inflammatory colony is formed in the lungs. Tuberculosis bacteria can also spread from there through blood or lymph. Therefore, tuberculosis can occur in any organ.

Tuberculosis infects and spreads into the environment through a droplet infection. It is spread by sick people with high levels of sputum bacteria in lung outbreaks. When a person with tuberculosis speaks, especially during coughing and sneezing, a fine mist of bacterial droplets spreads into the air. A healthy person is infected when breathing droplets. Normally, the body’s defense system overcomes the tuberculosis infection and the colony heals, but is replaced by a small lime scar on the lungs. The infection changes the way a person reacts in a tuberculosis test, in which a bulge rises in the forearm.