Tuberculosis High

[LawFox32]

I am a highschool student; I go to Douglas Freeman Highschool in Richmond, Virginia; and NO I do not have active TB.

One student, ONE student at my school has active TB; tomorrow the entire school gets tested. I will keep you guys posted on my results.


This all started aproximately 3 weeks ago, when a female student was diagnosed with Tuberculosis.... Mass Panic insues, media frenzy and frenzied parents.

You cannot Cough, Sneeze or blow your nose without some one asking you 5 minutes later if you have TB.

This "epidemic" has been covered by every local news broadcast multiple times.

Anywhoo tomorrow will be fun, not only have we just had a 6 day weekend because of snow, but we get to come it and get shots. Originally the tests were scheduled for tuesday but mother nature put that on hold.

There will be a lot of teary eyes tomorrow, when the needles make their appearance.

any questions? comments?

would you like a record of my health?

peace

[Restola]

www.webmd.com - http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/7/1680_53937.htm
Once widespread, TB became relatively rare with the help of antibiotics developed in the 1950s. Today, however, a new and highly resistant form has emerged, creating a public-health hazard in many large cities worldwide. If you have TB -- in its active or dormant state -- you must seek medical treatment.

If the worst you have to be subjected to is a shot, then I think what your school is doing is approriate.

[LawFox32]

the shots are just the test
treatment is about 10 months of anti-biotics

[Hamster Huey]

Luckily for you guys, the TB test is a rather wussy test. It just requires a small amount of fluid to be injected right underneath the skin, creating a "blister" of sorts that goes away in a minute or so. The needles they usually use are 30 gauge, which are really tiny, and they only need to insert the needle a couple millimeters. I doubt anyone will have trouble, although if you have enough people, inevitably someone is going to flip out. Most colleges require TB testing for admission, so you can think of this as getting ahead of the game for college.

[LawFox32]

yeah I know what the test is; I have gotten them from my doctor

[joeyjoe367]

Originally posted by LawFox32
the shots are just the test
treatment is about 10 months of anti-biotics

Please, please, PLEASE do EVERYONE a favor and Complete your prescription of anti-biotics.

What happens a lot of times, is someone'll get an ear-infection or something, get a perscription for pennecillin or some other antibiotic, take the pennecillin until the infection is "gone" and then the rest of the medication sits in their medicine cabinet.

that's how anti-biotic resistant-strains of bacteria come about.

Just the fact that this TB is resistant is proof enough that you should take your medication seriously. Please do.

[-J�ker-]

Originally posted by joeyjoe367


Please, please, PLEASE do EVERYONE a favor and Complete your prescription of anti-biotics.

What happens a lot of times, is someone'll get an ear-infection or something, get a perscription for pennecillin or some other antibiotic, take the pennecillin until the infection is "gone" and then the rest of the medication sits in their medicine cabinet.

that's how anti-biotic resistant-strains of bacteria come about.

Just the fact that this TB is resistant is proof enough that you should take your medication seriously. Please do.

yea thats 100% true, what happens is the strong survive the antiboitics at first, then if the person stops taking them the strong then repruduce creating a STONGER bacteria so TAKE ALL OF YOUR PRESCRIBED MEDICATION or else in another 10 years bacteria will be invulnearable to antibiotics

[FalconGuy016]

Thats a bit scary to me especially somewhere so close

[Jack_Dubious]

I thought TB tests were just a light pin pricking on the skin type test...


JDub

[pbzmag]

Here's a link about TB: http://my.webmd.com/content/healthwi...-9531713CA348}

[Hamster Huey]

TB tests used to be the nice little pin pricks that you hardly felt; I remember getting one in '95 or so. I'm not sure of the exact data, but it was found that these "TB tine tests" weren't very good. That's why they've moved to the current standard of injecting a small amount of antigen under the skin.

[SGTKennedy]

yeah, whine away.
in less than a month i have had....
2 tb tests. 2 anthrax, yellow fever, tet, typhoid, mmr, menengetis, both hep a&b, and blood drawn. AND SOON i go for Small pox. but you need 30 days between Yellow Fever and SP.
-pin cushion

[Collegeboy]

We had the same thing my senior year. A girl was diagnosed with meningitis.

[LawFox32]

The day is upon us; the masses are worried;

[Vex]

Yeah well, as someone who actually tested POSITIVE for TB in '97 (damn foreign country--Japan) I'll tell you that you MUST stick to your medication. Fortunately, my TB lay dormant, so I got to take INH (isoniazid) for 6 months straight. Since INH works through your liver, guess what--no alcohol, no tylenol, no caffiene! You can't miss more than 3 days of your medicine otherwise you get to start the entire treatment all over again!
The real bummer is that once you test positive for TB, you'll never be able to get the skin prick test done again for the rest of your life, because you'll always get a positive result. Therefore, you must have a chest x-ray performed so that they can check the condition of your lungs and be sure that the INH killed all of the TB.


Shhhh....I'll tell you the secret to it though...you don't take the INH for a day, then you get silly drunk the 2nd day, then you start up again on the 3rd day--Shazaam!
But you didn't hear that from me.