| Adherence to treatment |
Following the recommended course of treatment
by taking all the prescribed medications for the entire length
of time necessary. |
| Case management |
A system in which a specific health department
employee is assigned primary responsibility for managing the
patient’s case, systematic regular review of patient progress
is conducted, and plans are made to address any barriers to
adherence. |
| Cohort review |
A systematic review of the management of patients
with TB disease and their contacts. A “cohort” is a group
of TB cases counted over a specific period of time, usually
3 months. TB cases are reviewed for the patient’s clinical
status, the adequacy of the medication regimen, treatment
adherence or completion, and the results of contact investigation. |
| Contact investigation |
A procedure for interviewing a person who has
TB disease to determine who may have been exposed to TB. People
who have been exposed to TB are screened for TB infection
and disease. |
| Culture |
Organisms grown on media (substances containing
nutrients) so that they can be identified; a positive culture
for M. tuberculosis contains tubercle bacilli, whereas
a negative culture contains no detectable tubercle bacilli. |
| Directly observed therapy (DOT) |
A strategy devised to help patients adhere
to treatment; means that a health care worker or another designated
person watches the TB patient swallow each dose of the prescribed
drugs. |
| Extrapulmonary TB |
TB disease that occurs in places other than
the lungs, such as the lymph nodes, the pleura, the brain,
the kidneys, or the bones; most types of extrapulmonary TB
are not infectious. |
| Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) |
TB that is resistant to at least isoniazid
and rifampin; more difficult to treat than drug-susceptible
TB. |
| Pulmonary TB |
TB disease that occurs in the lungs (about
85% of all U.S. cases), typically causing a cough and resulting
in an abnormal CXR; pulmonary TB is usually infectious until
adequately treated. |
| Reported at death |
A person with TB disease who was not diagnosed
until time of death. |
| Tuberculin skin test (TST) |
A test used to detect TB infection. Done by
using a needle and syringe to inject 0.1 ml of 5 tuberculin
units of liquid tuberculin between the layers of the skin
(intradermally), usually on the forearm; the reaction to this
test, usually a small swollen area (induration), is measured
48–72 hrs after the injection and is classified as positive
or negative depending on the size of the reaction and the
patient’s risk factors for TB. |
