What are the symptoms of active TB disease?
Pulmonary tuberculosis may not produce any early symptoms until the infection in the lung has reached a size that is visible on x-ray. Symptoms in adults include cough, loss of appetite, fatigue, weight loss, fever and night sweats. TB may be misdiagnosed as bronchitis or pneumonia. Any cough lasting longer than three weeks should be thoroughly investigated. Sometimes, the disease is outside the lung such as in the kidney, lymph nodes, bone, etc. causing symptoms such as pain and discomfort in those sites. Infants are more likely to have symptoms than older children. The most common symptoms are: difficulty breathing, fever, night sweats, poor feeding, lethargy or irritability. Children may not gain weight or grow as they should. A cough may or may not be present. Usually an infant with TB is very sick. A prolonged infection that is not being cured by antibiotics can occasionally be TB. Because babies do not cough deeply it is very hard for them to spread TB.
