February 20, 2026
There is a spike of newly detected Tuberculosis (TB) patients in Malaysia. Read the news here.
TB is an infection spread by air, much like COVID.
If you had had COVID, yes, it is possible you get TB.
PTB is the short form of Pulmonary TB, or TB of the lung.
Indeed, TB can infect many if not most parts of the body, ie Brain, Liver, Bone, Skin, Lymph Node, Intestine etc. And the most common type of TB is PTB, because it spreads like Covid, through the air.
Below is the prevalence of TB in Malaysia from Year 2000. The graph is given in per 100, 000 population.
It is obvious that over the past 20 years, it had doubled.
TB can be treated, and should be treated, and early. Otherwise, it can cause very bad damage, and even kill.
Latent TB is a stage of TB, when, while the germ is inside the person, due to good immunity, the infection is well controlled. The person will not infect others (spread the disease). However, there is a high risk of TB overcoming the person's immunity, turning it from Latent to Active stage. Therefore, it is advisable to consult a doctor and get treated.(2 min YouTube to explain by a doctor).
Who should test for Latent TB?
1 Contacts with PTB patients. This is the major reason
2 Others are more unusual, ie depressed immunity due to diseases ie HIV/AIDS
Consult a doctor on how to test for Latent TB.
Do you have any question?
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