I wouldn’t ordinarily comment on a blog, however, this one is a subject which I am quite passionate about! I am a Tuberculosis service co-ordinator in an outer London hospital, and although in no way am I medically trained, I have been there long enough to get the general drift! The mere fact that the ‘carer’ clearly had no idea as to the patient’s condition opens all sorts of questions with regards to the patient’s compliancy with the medication. We come across many patients who are given their medication, only to disappear a few weeks later (granted these are normally alcoholics). These patients tend to re-appear several months later with their persistent cough, weight loss and night sweats, having defaulted, and then have to start all over again, whilst in the meantime they have infected a whole number of people. Without the medical history, and of course some more detailed information from the ‘carer’ you would have no way of knowing the patients status, and in fact whether they may have developed the drug resistant form of TB, or whether they were indeed suffering from infectious TB in the first place (although in most cases, they are normally deemed non-infectious after two weeks of medication). I have a tendency to waffle on the subject, so I will cut short now, but really I would speak to the TB nurse at the hospital – at least they will be able to advise you as to the patients condition and adherence, as you may not require any screening at all, and it maybe just a case of institutions such as care homes (obviously not all of them) educating their staff about TB, and the way in which it affects people. Thank you for bringing up the subject of TB in your blog! From experience, there is a real ignorance surrounding it, and with an increasing rate of prevalence I think it is a fantastic way to start educating people!