For many years now, we have had good medication to treat TB. You have to take the medication regularly (usually pills) for six to twelve months. TB can be cured and TB can be prevented. Treatment is vital. If you have TB disease, or if you have been infected with the germ but have not yet developed TB, you must take the medication as directed.

Treating all people with TB disease. People with infectious TB disease in their lungs can pass the germ to other people until they have started treatment. After about two weeks of treatment, they are no longer infectious to other people. Ensuring that all close contacts of people with TB are seen promptly by a doctor. If we detect infection with TB early, we can start treatment to prevent TB disease from developing.

TB is an infection caused by a bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis that spreads through the air from a person with active TB infection usually in their lungs. When infected, the bacteria commonly cause disease in the lungs but can also cause disease in many other parts of the body. The bacteria can cause two types of illness, an active form (active TB disease) and a latent form (latent TB infection).

TB is spread through the air from one person to another. The bacteria get into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, shouts, sings, or sneezes. People nearby may breathe in the bacteria and become infected. You may have been exposed to TB if you spent a lot of time near someone with TB disease of the lungs or throat. Most people get TB from a family member, spouse, friend, or close coworker.

First, get a TB skin test. This is the only way to tell if you have TB infection. If it is positive, you will be given other tests to see if you have TB infection or TB disease.

People newly arrived to Hawai'i who are immigrants, refugees, elderly, or students from countries where TB is common

There are medicines to fight TB. These may be pills, liquid to drink or shots. To cure TB, follow your doctor's advice and take your medication exactly as prescribed. If you stop too soon, the germs can come back even stronger than before, and you can give them to your family and friends. Take all the pills the doctor gives you. Anti-TB drugs only work when you take them.

If you have TB infection, you need treatment so you will not get TB disease later. This is called preventive therapy. Isoniazid (INH) is the anti-TB drug used most often. Unless you get preventive treatment, TB infection can turn into TB disease. Anyone who is infected can develop TB disease, but those who are more likely include: People with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, certain types of cancers and being underweight; and especially These things make your body weaker.

If a full course of anti-tubercular drugs is taken on a regular basis, this disease is fully curable. A TB patient has to take medicines for a minimum period of six months continuously. The drugs may continue up to on year in some cases. It is important that the drugs are discontinued only on the advice of the doctor. Patients who do not take a complete treatment or take drugs on an irregular basis, their disease turns incurable or even life-threatening.

In most people who breathe in TB bacteria and become infected, the body is able to fight the bacteria to stop them from growing. The bacteria become inactive, but they remain alive in the body and can become active later. This is called TB infection. Most people who have TB infection will never develop TB disease. In these people, the TB bacteria remain inactive for a lifetime without causing disease.

People with TB infection (without disease) have the germ that causes TB in their body. They may have been carrying this germ for a short or a very long time, but they are not sick because the germ lies inactive in the body. The body's strong immune system has the germs under control. While the TB germs are inactive in your body, they cannot hurt you and you cannot spread them to other people. In fact, if you are infected by the TB germs, you probably will not know it and you will not feel sick.

TB bacteria become active if the immune system can't stop them from growing. The active bacteria begin to multiply in the body and cause TB disease. Some people develop TB disease soon after becoming infected, before their immune system can fight the TB bacteria. Other people may get sick later, when their immune system becomes weak for some reason. Babies and young children often have weak immune systems. People infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, have very weak immune systems.