Monday, April 28, 2008

if you come out positive in a tuberculosis in a skin test, do you have tuberculosis

if you come out positive in a tuberculosis in a skin test, do you have tuberculosis?
i have a friend who took the skin test and her arm got a red bump, she came out clean in the xrays
Infectious Diseases - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
if the chest x-ray is negative then they do not have TB....many times a skin test can produce a false-positive...that is why a chest x-ray is ordered...sometimes the person has some type of antibody that reacts with the test or may have an allergic reaction, or may have just been misread. A positive skin test is not just a bump, it is an induration and the person reading it has to know the difference.
2 :
NO . . after the skin test has been done but the 3 days has not been reached any type of scratch can cause a positive reading and usually they will do another skin test, if it shows positive then they will proceed with the next step in diagnoising why it was positive
3 :
First off you have to understand that a person can be infected with TB, but not have the disease. The person's immune system has contained the infection, it may stay that way, or the person may come down with TB disease at a later time in life. A person with the infection is NOT contagious, a person with the disease is contagious. The skin test tests for TB. If it comes back positve it can indicate that the person has TB disease or has TB infection. It may also indicate that the person recieved the BCG immunization at birth (not performed in the US). The test though is not a good one. a person testing positive (which means that there is an induration, or "bump," on the skin and not just redness). So, in your friend's case, the negative xray indicates that she doesn't have the disease, but she may have an infection. The doctor and your friend need to decide if she wants to seek treatment for the infection and therefore avoid the potential for the infection to turn into TB disease. This will depend on her risk factors for the disease....

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