TB SYMPTOMS
Tuberculosis is not an easy disease to detect. This is because the symptoms take time to surface. Some of the common TB symptoms are often misunderstood to be something else. Some of the common TB symptoms include -
Cough
Fever
Loss of weight
Loss of energy
Evening rise of temperature
Chest pain
Difficulty with breathing
Nausea
Night sweats
TB is a highly contagious disease that is usually transmitted by coughing and sneezing. It is only once the infection flares into the disease that the signs and symptoms of TB are experienced.
If you are suffering from latent TB, you will not have symptoms and will not be able to spread the disease to others, whereas if you have active TB you will have symptoms and be able to spread the disease to others. Depending on what symptoms you have, it can be determined whether you are suffering from pulmonary or extra pulmonary TB.
SYMPTOMS OF ACTIVE PULMONARY TB:
These symptoms begin gradually and slowly develop over a period of time.
These symptoms include-
A cough with thick, cloudy and sometimes bloody mucus from the lungs for more than 2 weeks. This cough could keep getting worse with time and become uncontrollable.
Rapid heartbeat
If the lymph nodes in the neck are infected, then one could have a swollen neck
All these symptoms are accompanied by the common TB symptoms.
SYMPTOMS OF ACTIVE EXTRA PULMONARY TB:
These are very varied symptoms which are usually determined by the area the TB is affecting. For example if one is suffering from a back pain, it could be a symptom for TB in the spine.
Your immune system plays an important role in detecting the disease. Depending on how quickly your immune system fights off the infection, you could experience the following-
No symptoms
Minor symptoms for a couple of weeks which eventually stop
Some symptoms for a few days or months.
People whose immune systems fight the infection, develop immunity to TB.
