The patient's perspective: Louise's story

15 February 2011

Despite giving up smoking and taking a course of antibiotics, Louise's chest infection did not clear up. She returned to her GP many times with symptoms including a cough that was not getting better, weight loss, sweats and a general feeling of tiredness—classic symptoms of TB. Yet it took a visit to A&E, after coughing up blood, before Louise was diagnosed with infectious TB. In the meantime, she had passed on TB bacteria to her family and colleagues—including her sister who went on to develop active TB. Read more.