One of the main sources of infection is coughing patients who have contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. Is it possible to get tuberculosis in this case? Usually, infection occurs in poorly and rarely ventilated areas where the sick person is.
How can I get tuberculosis in everyday life?
There are two ways.
Contact infection occurs when using the patient's items and clothing, as well as during the care of infected animals.
The food type of transmission most often occurs in children and adolescents when eating milk and dairy products from a sick animal infected with meat.
How to determine tuberculosis infection?
A skin test, called the Mantoux test, determines the infection by the bacteria of this disease. The main goal of this procedure is to find out how you can get infected with tuberculosis, to detect infection, and to select individuals to perform anti-TB vaccinations. At the injection site of the skin test, the following changes are observed:
- only the injection trace is considered a negative reaction;
- redness of the skin;
- elevation and tightening of the skin (papule), which is determined by touch, by eye;
- a bubble with a liquid (vesicle).
A papule having a size of up to 5 mm and redness of the skin is defined as a dubious reaction, but a papule or vesicle having a size of more than 5 mm is positive.
Is it possible to contract tuberculosis and not get sick?
Microbial infection does not indicate that a person is sick. Only 5-10% is the probability of infection of a healthy person with this disease. The bulk of infected people do not get sick. The number of microbacteria that enter the body depends on how close the contact with the patient with tuberculosis took place and how large the bacterial excretion of the infected was. Thus, the answer to the question is received: “How can I get infected with tuberculosis and not get sick?”
Factors Affecting a Predisposition to the Disease
A person can get this disease if the body's immune system is weakened. The following factors affect it:
- starvation or malnutrition can reduce the body's resistance;
- alcohol and smoking significantly reduces immunity;
- HIV, respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, mental disorders, stress.
How to protect yourself from tuberculosis
There are two ways you can get infected with tuberculosis and not get sick. With their help, the development of this disease can be prevented.
1. Nonspecific:
• improvement of immunity;
• Improvement of housing and industrial environment.
2. Specific:
• Tuberculosis vaccinations. With the help of a vaccine, immunity to infection is formed. Vaccination is considered the basic way to prevent tuberculosis in children. The main vaccine worldwide is BCG.
• Chemoprophylaxis is the introduction of anti-TB drugs to healthy people who are at risk of infection and the development of the disease. The main drug for chemoprophylaxis is Tubazid.