TB Infection vs. TB Disease
It is important to know the difference between TB infection and disease. A person with TB infection has the TB germ, but is not contagious to others and may have no signs or symptoms of illness. In the infection stage, the person's immune system is strong enough to "contain" the germs so that they do not cause illness. Persons with TB infection have a 5-10% chance of developing TB disease at some point in their life. The simplest way to find out if you have TB infection is by having a TB skin test. A positive TB test usually indicates that you have the TB germ.

TB disease denotes a condition where the body no longer can contain the TB germs, and the person becomes sick as a result. Symptoms of TB disease can include: coughing (especially coughing up blood or phlegm), chest pain, weight loss, fatigue, fever, and night sweats. A positive TB skin test result alone is not an indicator of TB disease. A chest x-ray and other diagnostic tests are used to diagnose TB disease.

Persons with TB disease can be contagious to others, but if properly treated, their contagious period is short. The term "TB case" (often cited in TB statistics) refers to a person with TB disease.

	TB Infection	TB Disease (in the lungs)
TB Germs in the Body?	Yes	Yes
Chest X-Ray Result	Usually normal	Usually abnormal
Signs & Symptoms	Usually none	See symptoms discussed above
Contagious to Others?	No	Often contagious before treatment

Did You Know? ….The number of people to which one infectious TB patient can spread the disease? Answer: 10-15.

TB Treatment
Thanks to modern medicine, TB is curable. For persons with TB infection who have not developed disease, a course of antibiotics can prevent them from developing TB disease. For persons with TB disease, the treatment is more complicated but equally effective, involving up to 4 antibiotics.

For further information on TB, please see the National ALA website:
www.lungusa.org/diseases/lungtb/html