I’ve had a rather worrying email from the posh club where I teach – my son has had a cough ever since he’s come back from his gap year travels and it hadn’t occurred to me that it could be anything serious. Perhaps I should get him checked out. Worrying to think how easily TB can be contracted and I’m suddenly delighted that the classes I teach do not require a microphone (I am far to old and unfit to need one of those!). I felt it was worth passing on to anyone else who might use a microphone at work:-
“One of our instructors based in London has been diagnosed with (tuberculosis) TB. Before you panic, it is incredibly difficult to catch TB so it isn’t going to be an issue for most of you. When our instructor was assessed for risk factors and exposure, the medical team found only one real potential mode of transmission and suspect that he contracted the bacteria from sharing microphones. This means that potentially there are instructors out there who have active or dormant TB.
It is incredibly unlikely that you have it but it is very important that we all start to practice better hygiene with the microphones. Always carry alcohol wipes and your own windshields with you. The problem with microphones is that we all spit on them. This is the primary way to contract TB. Ordinarily the bacteria is killed by sunlight and fresh air circulation. As you all know, this doesn’t happen with microphones that are kept in dark cupboards.
You also need to be aware of the symptoms of TB. These symptoms are very common in overworked instructors so you may not recognise them as TB symptoms and easily dismiss them as symptoms of physically overworking:
1. Persistent coughing (not necessarily productive and over 3 weeks in duration)
2. Blood in your sputum (not necessarily constant, can be occasional)
3. Night sweats
4. Frequent flu-like symptoms
5. High temperature
6. Fatigue
7. Unexplained weight loss
8. Breathlessness
9. Feeling generally unwell over some period of time
10. Lack of appetite
If you have any of the symptoms listed above, get yourself checked out by your GP:
Kelloggsville
August 15, 2012Apart from the 1st two, aren’t all the other symptoms just menopause? Doesn’t the tb jab last a lifetime then?
Family Affairs
August 15, 2012I don’t know! Getting jabs on Thursday so will ask….Lx
Mud
August 16, 2012Scary. But don’t kids yet given a BCG jab these days? Seems foolish if the risk is still out there.
Family Affairs
August 16, 2012No they don’t give it as a matter of course anymore. Lx
Shiny
August 16, 2012TB is rife here (a nasty add-on to our HIV stats.) The jab, I’m afraid, is not an absolute preventative measure, just like other vaccines, so get him checked out, just in case. Ooo, I sound so serious and bossy. It’s just that it’s something I know lots about (one of the few things!) I certainly hope it’s not TB. Love from a very cold and wet tip of Africa xx