I have tuberculosis with fever, night sweats, chest pain, etc. What should I do?

Question

Hello doctor,

I recently had a blood test that came back positive for tuberculosis. Since then I have had trouble booking an appointment with a specialist, and was wondering if I should go to the hospital. I have symptoms that include fever, chills, night sweats, a tiny amount of blood in my spit, sharp chest pain 1-3 times a day that is followed by my chest bones cracking when I stretch, tight throat, and feeling like I am not getting enough breath but only 1-2 times a day for minutes at a time.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Thanks for your query. It is recommended that you visit the hospital and get further testing and treatment done. I am not sure how you got tuberculosis but there is a definite treatment, standardised worldwide. Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS, also known as TB-DOTS) is the name given to the tuberculosis (TB) control strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. A standard DOTS regimen is likely to be a combination of four drugs for eight weeks followed by a combination of three drugs for four months. There are other regimens, which are variations.

The DOTS treatment needs to be done under the supervision of a designated healthcare professional so that no patient misses doses. However, none of these are started unless evaluation tests are done to understand the presence, severity, and resistance patterns of the disease. This would be preferable in a designated center for TB treatment in your area. I am not sure if specialists can undertake this treatment in your area. If they do, they are likely to be following a similar pattern of diagnosis and treatment.