Question: What are the survival rates if a human gets tb?

Cat O'Connor answered on 17 Jun 2011:

Hi kemp13,

You’re going to think i’m a abit of a cop out with this answer, but seriously it depends on so much!

First thing is: What type of TB is it? Is the human kind (which has a lot more resistance to drugs) or the cattle kind?

Second: Is the bug resistant to antibiotics? If it is, it doesn’t mean it’s fatal but it might take a lot longer to find a treatment that works.

Third, and often most important: What is the immune status of the person who has the bug? Are the immunocompromised, which is really just a very long word to describe that they already have a disease or disorder which means they may not be able to fight the infection. An important one for TB, especiallly in africa, is that people with AIDS will often die from TB partly because they are immunocompromised and partly because of point 4:

Fourth, Does the person have good access to health care? You can imagine that if you live in a very rural village in africa and are poor, you won’t be able to afford to leave your village to go to a doctor or hospital and pay for drugs.

If you are very lucky and have drug sensitive TB, say the human kind, and are not sick already and you can get to a doctor as soon as you are feeling poorly, you have a very good chance to survive. But if you are an AIDS sufferer with drug resistant TB in a tiny village somewhere, your chance of survival can be quite slim.

Does this answer your very good question?

Cat