Prevention

If you test positive for latent TB infection, your doctor might advise you to take medications to reduce your risk of developing active tuberculosis. Only active TB is contagious.

Protect your family and friends

If you have active TB, it generally takes a few weeks of treatment with TB medications before you're not contagious anymore. Follow these tips to help keep your friends and family from getting sick:

• Stay home. Don't go to work or school or sleep in a room with other people during the first few weeks of treatment.
• Ventilate the room. Tuberculosis germs spread more easily in small closed spaces where air doesn't move. If it's not too cold outdoors, open the windows and use a fan to blow indoor air outside.
• Cover your mouth. Use a tissue to cover your mouth anytime you laugh, sneeze or cough. Put the dirty tissue in a bag, seal it and throw it away.
• Wear a face mask. Wearing a face mask when you're around other people during the first three weeks of treatment may help lessen the risk of transmission.

Finish your medication

This is the most important step you can take to protect yourself and others from tuberculosis. When you stop treatment early or skip doses, TB bacteria have a chance to develop mutations that allow them to survive the most potent TB drugs. The resulting drug-resistant strains are deadlier and more difficult to treat.

Vaccinations

In countries where tuberculosis is more common, infants often are vaccinated with bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. The BCG vaccine isn't recommended for general use in the United States because it isn't very effective in adults. Dozens of new TB vaccines are in various stages of development and testing.