Learn about Tuberculosis Test Converter

Male Speaker: Sometimes a kid has a positive TB test when you take an x-ray. Why, is that looking from pneumonia or why would take an x-ray of your TB test it must - going to be positive?

Dr. Michael Marcus: When a person is tested for tuberculosis, his skin test that's placed will become positive if the patient had been infected by the bacteria, which causes tuberculosis at any point in time. This is the first stage of the process. You then say the patient has had a TB infection but not necessarily the disease. Only about 25 to 30% of patients who have infection we will go on to develop full fledged tuberculosis disease. In order to judge if a patient has disease the chest x-ray is the next step in the process. Depending on whether the patient has only infection or has both infection and disease this is what helps us plan what the proper treatment should be.

Male Speaker: So, the term we use with a negative x-ray is a recent converter yet many times you select to give the kids sometimes a medicine for parasite?

Dr. Michael Marcus: Patients who are converters to tuberculosis, in another words, have TB infection without active disease have a risk of approximately 25% of developing full fledged tuberculosis disease. Since the disease of tuberculosis is so serious and the treatment to prevent disease is relatively safe the recommendation is that we place patients who are convertors for tuberculosis on medication to prevent them from developing disease over the coming future.

Male Speaker: Thank you.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services