TB advice please

[flippinpeedoff]

Dp might be going to visit his sister who has come back to England from Bangladesh. Dp is half bangladeshi , his half sister full. Not sure if this is at all relevant but wanted to give some background
She is coming here because she has been diagnosed with TB and is coming to be treated. She wants to see all her siblings and this includes dp.
Does anyone know the risks for dp( he feels he must go) and should he even consider taking any of the kids with him? They would love to see their family as the hardly ever get to see them.
I know next to nothing about TB only that my father nearly died of it as a boy

Didn't want your post to go unanswered...

I am not a medic, however I understand the the risk of TB comes from lots of prolonged contact with a patient. I wouldn't have thought that a visit would put your DP at risk. Has he had the BCG btw?

Is it official that she'll be travelling here with TB? With recirculated air on aircraft, she could pass it onto other passengers.

Its highly contagious and the vaccine is not 100% effective. If the children have not been vaccinated they should not see her. Perhaps you could see your local practice nurse to talk it through?

Thanks for the replies. All I know is that she says she has been diagnosed with it in BAngladesh and is coming here in the next few days. If that's true then yes she will be on an aircraft with TB.
That's not great is it?
The children are too young to have been vaccinated so I guess it's a no go for them
I'll phone the surgery, good idea!

How come your children are too young to have been vaccinated? DS was born in Ireland and had the BCG jab at a week old. Would have had it earlier but was born on a holiday weekend so they didn't do them on the Monday in hospital.

Do they not give the jab in UK then?

Recently changed in the uk. They used to do it at 13, now they do it at 6 wks insome areas where there are high numbers of tb or if you have it in your family. Op, if you told the gp I think the kids could get it. Better than nothing. Does she have Mdr tb?

Our DD had her TB vax at birth due to the ridiculously high levels of it in Oman.
I'm not sure what advice to give you, I would be really properly pissed off though if I found out that I'd been travelling on a plane with someone with TB.
Out of interest, why is she going to the UK for treatment?

I'm with kreecher. I think it's shocking!

I almost daren't ask if she's just going to roll up and expect the NHS to pay... :(

Incidentally I've not been vaccinated against TB. This wasn't an issue when I was younger, but as more and more people happily arrive carrying TB perhaps it's time I look in to it.

I wasn't going to ask about the rocking up and asking the NHS to pay, that isn't my concern, it was the blaze attituted to flying with a contagious illness that you know you have.

TB is contagious to those who are 'kissing' contacts, I.e., those who are in close proximity for a reasonable length of time. However, on a flight from Bangladesh this would put most people at risk of exposure. It is a notifiable disease and IIRC all the people on the flight would probably require screening.

Not all areas of the UK have early vaccination either. I would avoid contact for your children until she is on correct treatment and medical staff tell her she's no longer infectious.

I'm sorry I don't know which sort of TB she has. Dp has never met her. Contact has all been on FB. His father left his mother when she was pg with him and married another woman and fathered umpteen children. They live north of uk to our south. Of course they have a great desire to include him as their brother but it is a shame that he doesn't feel comfortable visiting them very often. I wish he would, for the kids' sake if for nothing else.
So he knows nothing really. She just fb'd him, said she had been quite ill for a while and had finally been diagnosed with Tb and was coming to the uk to get better. She has lived in Bangladesh for years, since she married.
I have just had a look at our red books and there is no tb jab scheduled until 10-14 years. Certainly none was given in infancy.
But I think they have stopped that anyway haven't they? Only for those in at risk groups IIRC?
From what I have read the risk for the children would be low as they wouldn't be in prolonged exposure. But there are too many what if's here. I don't know what stage of infection she is at, what if any treatment she has already had, whether she has been given the all clear and is simply coming here to recuperate etc etc.

If Dp can find out this information from her then I will be better placed to make a decision. If she can't give any info then obviously they won't go UNLESS they can get a jab in the meantime. Would the dr do this?
They might be considered to be in an at risk group anyway since they have family who either live or make regular trips to bangladesh.
I totally agree though flying when you know you have a contagious disease is dreadful.

If you agree that it is dreadful for her to be flying with TB, you need to make your feelings clear.
I will repeat my earlier posting, I would be hugely pissed off to find that I'd shared cabin air with someone with TB. I was cross enough when it was chickenpox.

You'd be able to get the children the jab since they have a family member with TB. However, the jab is not 100% (no jab is, but particularly TB, in part becuase there are now so many different strains of it).

1. I am horrified she is flying when knowingly carrying an infectious disease. Really. Nothing to do with NHS funding or whatever - everything to do with being seriously irresponsible. This IS a risk for any vulnerable people on the same flight.

1. another thing for you to consider. when my dcs were young i spoke with medical professionals about our family history of tb (several generations have caught the disease in spite of living in very "normal" circumstances).

i was told that researchers have been looking at the epidemiology of tb in the uk in the late 19th/early 20th century. they have identified patterns of infection and death where it can be seen the disease ripped through a community, but while some families would suffer many deaths, others would be relatively untouched. living conditions/diet etc would all be the same, so this suggests a genetic susceptibility to tb.

in your case your DF caught it, it is possible you and your DCs might also be genetically predisposed to catching it. so make no mistake - your dh taking your dcs to see his family could be a very bad idea.

FWIW both my dcs are vacc'd. tb is massively on the increase in the uk, especially in london, and the increase of multi-drug resistant tb and extreme multi-drug resistant tb around the globe is truly scary.

Thank you teej

I have told dp to get all the info he can from her. She has fb'd him to say she is arriving on Saturday.
I have pointed out to dp the irresponsibilty of flying with TB. It's up to him whether he says something, I suspect he won't.

Why have they stopped giving the vaccine as a matter of course, it doesn't make sense.

flip tb was considered eradicated in countries like the UK. in addition, the vaccine (like most) is only effective to a particular extent, against particular strains.

unfortunately it was not eradicated, particularly in low and middle income countries, and there are many millions of people who, unwittingly, are passive carriers of the disease. most of the time a diagosis is only made when the person develops active tb

with the increase in global travel and immigration, more people picked up the disease on their travels or people who had the disease (either in its active or passive form) moved to live in countries like the UK. hence incidence of the disease increased again.

one of the risk factors for spread of the disease is people living in cramped conditions, so when you think of people maybe living in a shared house or with family in a comparatively small space, then the spread of the disease becomes much easier. prison populations also tend to be prone to TB for the same reason.

the increase in tb in London, with its large immigrant community and substantial tourist population, is why the local authorities have started to provide the jab again, either to "at risk" children or as a matter of course.

btw - you should look at NHS Direct, the WHO website etc to get more info, don't rely on your SIL.

but really in terms of your DCs - would you make them sit in the same room as someone with swine flu? transmission is just the same:

"Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection. It is spread by inhaling tiny droplets of saliva from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person."

good luck - you are in a tricky situation.

teej thanks, I'll do that, yes it's a difficult decision indeed

that's a great link teej really useful, I've learned a lot from it, thanks