The world health organization released information this week saying that tuberculosis is now the top killing infectious disease in the world… surpassing COVID-19.
San Luis Obispo County Public Health says so far there have been less than 5 cases of Active Tuberculosis in the county this year.
While the numbers are low for Active TB, I spoke to doctors who say there is another form of it to be aware of... Latent Tuberculosis, or LTBI.
"The bug does get into your lungs." said Dr. Roberts from Med Stop Urgent Care. "You have TB, but your immune system walls it off and your immune system keeps basically it hibernates it doesn't make you sick and you can't give it to other people, but you are infected with LTBI, Latent Tuberculosis. That's the one that's much more common, and the one we really need to make efforts to find those people."
Dr. Roberts says Latent TB can develop into Active TB, which will make you begin to show symptoms, and make you contagious.
"Tuberculosis is transmitted from person to person by droplets." said Dr. Vendegna from French Hospital. "So coughing, sneezing. So that's how you would get tuberculosis. And the symptoms of TB would be you would develop a cough, Sputum productions, fevers, weight loss. It's a slow progressing disease, if left untreated is very serious."
Both doctors say the treatment for active TB is a long process, but if followed strictly, you wont have any lingering impacts.
"It takes like 3 or 4 drugs to kill Tuberculosis over an extended period. So most treatments of tuberculosis are up to six months." said Dr. Vendegna.
Dr. Roberts says that if you have Latent TB, the treatment is easier and takes less time. if you suspect you could have Latent TB,he recommends getting tested with a skin test, or a blood test by your doctor.
"The benefit is not reactivating later. So, we said that more than 85% of the active cases are from LTBI. If you treat LTBI, it becomes extremely unlikely that it will activate." said Dr. Roberts.
While around the whole world TB is dangerous, both doctors agree that the likelihood of getting it here are low, and even if you do, there are treatments to kill it.
