World Tuberculosis Day
At OneWorld volunteer clinicians staff a Tuberculosis Prevention Clinic. The clinic has been a mainstay of OneWorld for more than two decades.
In many countries, TB is much more common than in the United States.).TB bacteria can live in the body without making you sick. This is called latent TB infection. In most people who breathe in TB bacteria and become infected, the body is able to fight the bacteria to stop them from growing.
People with latent TB infection can take medications to prevent TB, most often they:
- Have no symptoms
- Don’t feel sick
- Can’t spread TB bacteria to others
- Usually have a positive TB skin test reaction or positive TB blood test
- May develop TB disease if they do not receive treatment for latent TB infection
Many people who have latent TB infection never develop TB disease. In these people, the TB bacteria remain inactive for a lifetime without causing disease. But in other people, especially people who have a weak immune system, the bacteria become active, multiply, and cause TB disease. For more information visit cdc.gov/tb.
