Infection control for pulmonary tuberculosis

Infection control is particularly important for pulmonary TB because it is the predominant infectious form of TB. Patients with TB caused by fully drug-susceptible bacteria may be noninfectious after 2 weeks of daily treatment with standard short-course therapy, but this should not be assumed. Assess whether the patient is likely to be infectious beyond 2 weeks on a case-by-case basis. In particular, precautions against airborne transmission may be required for longer than 2 weeks in patients:

• with extensive cavitation
• with confirmed or likely drug-resistant TB
• who are smear-positive
• who do not improve after 2 weeks of therapy.

Children younger than 10 years of age are usually considered noninfectious. Extrapulmonary TB is not an infection risk in the absence of lung disease.