TB shock

[Gringoboy]

I've just been diagnosed positive for pulmonary Tuberculosis. Wtf?
How I contracted this is a complete mystery, although I do have a shop and you never know who is carrying what nowadays.
I'm told that I probably have had it for months without knowing. True, I've had a bad cough for some time and after the gripe in March I have never felt quite right. They say it can lurk in your body for many years and get triggered by some event.
I used to laugh at people wearing masks all over the place, like MJ.
Not any more.
I'm getting good care (private/prepago) and they are cutting no corners. Lovely people and genuinely concerned for me and my family (who now have to have tests to see if I have infected them).
Life's a bitch, but what the heck.. always look on the bright side

 

[sam3g]

I never knew this, but it seems that TB is not all that uncommon according to the WHO:


Overall, one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the TB bacillus.

5-10% of people who are infected with TB bacilli (but who are not infected with HIV) become sick or infectious at some time during their life. People with HIV and TB infection are much more likely to develop TB.

 

[starlucia]

It's funny you mention this now, since I've recently been scratching my head over coughing etiquette in this city. Has anyone else noticed that NO ONE covers their mouth when they cough in public? I have yet to hear a parent say to a child "cover your mouth when you cough!"... hell, the other night in a restaurant, some urchin climbed into his mother's lap, hacked several times directly into her face, and she just calmly ignored him and kept on talking to her husband But what boggles my mind is that adults don't do it, either.... I'm no germaphobe, but on the streets or bus, I find myself holding my breath surprisingly often, due to some nearby adult freely hocking up a lung in everyone else's faces. When I was a kid, it was drilled into my head by parents and teachers that not covering a cough is about as bad-mannered as it gets, and after catching some vicious month-long bronchial thing last winter, I kind of want to shake anyone that doesn't do it.

Anyway, I'm sorry you have this; all the best in your recovery.

 

[AngelinBA]

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis! But you're in the right place to get good medical treatment and finally lose that cough you've had.