Tuberculosis among Health Care Workers

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. It spreads form one person to another through air. When infected people with TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs in the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to be infected. Evidence of TB has been reported in human remains dated thousands of years. About one quarter of the world’s population has latent TB, which means TB bacteria have infected people but are not (yet) ill with the disease and therefore cannot transmit the disease. Tb occurs in specific risk groups such as immigrants, HIV-positive patients, homeless patients, prisoners, and alcoholics. Health care workers, who face frequent occupational exposure, are at particularly high risk. When a person develops active TB, the symptoms (such as cough, fever, night sweats or weight loss) may be latent for many months. This can lead to delays in seeking care and transmission of the bacteria to others. People with active TB can infect 10-15 other people through close contact over the course of the course of a year. Without treatment, 45% of HIV- negative people with TB on average and nearly all HIV- positive people with TB will die. Transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in health care settings to both patients and health care workers has been reported from virtually every country of the world, regardless of local TB incidence. We are presenting the case of an asymptomatic 28- year-old Caucasian male from Europe who initially was being screened for TB for pre-employment purposes.