TB +

[MEDusa]

I had decided to get my vaccines up to date before hearing from the admissions since I was born in a different country. Turns out that the PDD test came out positive, but I had the BCG vaccine when I was 2 wks old. Now I need a follow up with pneumo to see if I'm clear. I have no active TB symptoms. 

My question is: weather if it's positive and I go under antibiotherapy or of its negative, will I have to always get tested ? Is it something serious that I will have to document everytime ? Or once I'm clear, we move on? 

[anonymouspls]

This damn BCG vaccine flared up a similar false positive for me when I was trying to volunteer at a hospital. All I had to do was get a scan done which showed I didn't have TB. 

 

I've run across this issue twice and both times I had to go to the next step to be cleared. This makes sense as technically just because one test was a false positive doesn't mean the next one is as well. It'll just be a minor inconvenience that we have to deal with every time we do the PDD test. 

[MEDusa]

4 minutes ago, ysera said:

This damn BCG vaccine flared up a similar false positive for me when I was trying to volunteer at a hospital. All I had to do was get a scan done which showed I didn't have TB. 

 

I've run across this issue twice and both times I had to go to the next step to be cleared. This makes sense as technically just because one test was a false positive doesn't mean the next one is as well. It'll just be a minor inconvenience that we have to deal with every time we do the PDD test. 

Thank's for the info. Do you have to suspend your internships until you're declared clear again ? 

Also, I've always wondered why don't they just do blood test instead ? Since the skin test is most likely to give false positives for BCG vaccinated people. 

[anonymouspls]

25 minutes ago, MEDusa said:

Thank's for the info. Do you have to suspend your internships until you're declared clear again ? 

Also, I've always wondered why don't they just do blood test instead ? Since the skin test is most likely to give false positives for BCG vaccinated people. 

At my community hospital I had to be tested every 5 years and yes, upon a positive result I couldn't volunteer until I cleared up the issue with a followup scan. 

As for your second question, couldn't say. 

[m_jacob_45]

For med school, you have to get a TB test every year and if  you know you have previously been exposed/had the BCG vaccine there is a self-declaration form that you fill out instead and possibly a chest XR (though I'm not sure if you need to do it every year).