Is tuberculosis contagious?

Tuberculosis does not occur easily, but once it occurs, it means it is contagious. Tuberculosis not only occurs in a few weak people, but also in most people, especially some office workers who often need to work with others and stay in sealed spaces for a long time. When they hear that someone around them has tuberculosis, they will inevitably worry about whether this disease is contagious. In fact, tuberculosis has a source of infection and is not transmitted through secretions in the air. When the patient coughs or sneezes, do not spray your saliva on others. You can choose to cover your mouth with a tissue to reduce the spread of tuberculosis. It is not that tuberculosis will definitely occur after infection with tuberculosis bacteria. Unless your own resistance is too low, it will lead to tuberculosis.

Is tuberculosis contagious?

With the source of infection, tuberculosis bacteria must also be transmitted to others through certain channels. Respiratory transmission is the main route of tuberculosis infection. When a tuberculosis patient coughs, sneezes or talks loudly, a large amount of tiny sputum containing tuberculosis bacteria is released into the air. If healthy people inhale the sputum containing tuberculosis bacteria, they will be infected. The degree of tuberculosis infectiousness is mainly affected by factors such as the amount of bacteria excreted by tuberculosis patients, the severity of cough symptoms, and the degree of contact. If there are patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in a family, nursery, kindergarten, primary school or office, then the people around them, especially children, are more likely to be infected with tuberculosis bacteria.

Tuberculosis transmission usually occurs before discovery and diagnosis, that is, it is most contagious when no obvious symptoms are found. With timely treatment, the infectiousness of tuberculosis will quickly weaken and disappear. Within a few days after chemotherapy, the number of tuberculosis bacteria in the patient's sputum decreases dramatically. Even if there are still a few tuberculosis bacteria in the sputum, their activity is significantly weakened, and the patient's cough symptoms gradually decrease or disappear. Therefore, general contact with these tuberculosis patients will not cause infection.

A healthy person may not necessarily develop tuberculosis after being infected with tuberculosis bacteria. The incidence of tuberculosis is mainly affected by two factors, namely the virulence of the tuberculosis bacteria and the level of body resistance. If the tuberculosis bacteria are highly virulent and the body's resistance is poor, tuberculosis is likely to occur. After the first infection with tuberculosis, the vast majority of people do not develop the disease, but about 10% of people may develop tuberculosis at any time in their lives. Infants, adolescents, the elderly, pneumoconiosis patients, diabetics, people who have undergone gastrectomy or have used immune preparations for a long time are more susceptible to the disease because of their reduced resistance. HIV-infected people are highly susceptible to tuberculosis once they are infected with tuberculosis bacteria due to their compromised immune systems.

Therefore, when there is a tuberculosis patient around you, the first thing to do is to understand whether he (she) is a tuberculosis patient and whether he (she) has received anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy. If the patient has a negative sputum bacteria test or is a sputum bacteria positive patient who has undergone chemotherapy, the infectiousness is extremely low and you do not have to worry about being infected. If the patient is untreated and excreting bacteria, he should be urged to go to a tuberculosis prevention and control agency for standardized treatment as soon as possible to eliminate the infectiousness as soon as possible. The main symptoms of tuberculosis include cough, sputum, hemoptysis, chest pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, low-grade fever, and night sweats. Therefore, after a tuberculosis patient is found in the family or among colleagues, people who have close contact with the patient, if they have the above symptoms persisting for more than 3 weeks and have not recovered, should go to a professional tuberculosis prevention and control agency for examination in time so that they can be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible. If you don't find anything unusual, don't worry.