How tuberculosis is transmitted and develops Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease transmitted by the respiratory tract. The source of infection for TB is a TB patient whose TB bacilli are found in sputum on microscopic examination (medically known as a smear-positive patient). When the patient coughs, snorts or talks loudly, the bacterium-carrying sputum froth is inhaled by healthy people and the TB bacilli enter the body through the respiratory tract. When the body’s resistance is strong, the bacteria entering the body are few and virulent, and only a small amount of reproduction in the body, latent without disease, is called the infection of tuberculosis bacteria; when the body’s resistance is low, the bacteria entering the body are many and virulent, and the bacteria multiply and destroy the body tissue is called the disease. Tuberculosis that occurs in the lungs is called pulmonary tuberculosis, while tuberculosis that occurs outside the lungs is called extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Common symptoms of tuberculosis The main symptoms of tuberculosis are: coughing, coughing up sputum, hemoptysis, fever or chest pain, etc. Especially if these symptoms do not improve after 3 weeks, you are a person with “suspicious symptoms of tuberculosis”, and you may have tuberculosis. A chest X-ray can detect most cases of tuberculosis, and when a lung lesion is found, a sputum test for tuberculosis must be performed. If you find TB bacteria, you will find the pathogen and the diagnosis will be confirmed. How to cure TB Once a patient is diagnosed, he or she must adhere to regular treatment and complete the prescribed course of treatment. After 1-3 months of treatment, the symptoms of tuberculosis may be partially reduced or disappear completely, but at this time, the patient must not think that the disease has been cured and stop the medication. Regular and complete medication is the key to curing TB. What does it mean to be cured of tuberculosis? The treatment effect of a tuberculosis patient is judged by the disappearance or stabilization of the lung lesions on X-ray chest examination, the improvement of clinical symptoms, and the absence of tuberculosis bacteria on sputum smear microscopy. Therefore, a patient with tuberculosis is cured after completing a course of treatment with the prescribed chemical regimen and no tuberculosis bacilli are found in the patient’s sputum by microscopic examination and the lung lesions disappear or are stable. Some patients may still have symptoms such as cough or hemoptysis after completing the course of treatment, which may be caused by the patient’s complications such as bronchitis or bronchiectasis after cure.