Here is a situation:
Kinsler is a Patient care tech at Texas Children’s Hospital in the PICU. He is taking care of patients on the unit and notice that there are signs on the front door to use a gown, gloves, face shield, and N95. Kinsler was in a hurry and does not wear an n95 or face shield, instead he was just wearing a regular mask on. He was running behind on taking his vital signs for his group. Later on, he finds out that the patient that he went to that had to gown up had TB. A year later, Kinsler is applying for another job and he did not pass the TB skin test as part of a pre-employment screening. He is required to get a chest x-ray to father see if he is TB positive. With his x-ray, he is ok and does not have TB.
TB is a bacteria that can be spread through the air from one person to another by singing, speaking, or coughing. How TB moved through the body is that he came in contact with a patient that had the virus and was talking to the patient in close range. So far, Kinsler does not have any symptoms and shows no signs of distress. TB bacteria can live in the body without making you sick. This is called latent TB infection. Many people who have latent TB infection never develop TB disease. In these people, the TB bacteria remain inactive for a lifetime without causing disease (CDC, 2022). Tb does attack body part such as kidney, spine and brain. All that the body can do and try to stop TB germs from growing. The germs can’t do any more harm if the immune system keeps them under control. But the germs survive (Mayo, 2023). Ultimately, TB wins in this situation because it is in the body system of Kinsler. He would just have to always pay attention at work and make sure that he wears the right PPE when he comes in contact with patients, especially with TB. It is something we do not want to spread to others that are not exposed to it.
CDC. December 11, 2020. Tuberculosis (TB). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/tbinfectiondisease.htm Links to an external site.
Mayo Clinic. March 22,2023. Tuberculosis. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tuberculosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351250 Links to an external site.