Vaccination
Although an effective TB vaccine would make the greatest impact on decreasing the problem of TB, there isn't one currently available that is effective in all populations. Some countries have relied upon and still use the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. The BCG vaccine offers some protection against TB infection in children but is considered to have limited protective value in adults. Unfortunately, BCG vaccinated people may produce a positive skin test result (TST), even if they are not infected with TB. This is a common cause of false positive TST results and can lead to unnecessary treatment for TB infection.
Treatment
TB is usually curable with effective antibiotic drug treatment. Typically, one or more drugs is recommended for treatment. Treatment of TB disease and latent TB infection are broadly similar, differing only in the number of drugs used and the length of treatments.
Drug therapy for TB infection can take many months to complete and therefore may cause treatment compliance to become poor. This poor compliance can lead to an increase in strains of TB resistant to antibiotics. The rise and spread of these resistant TB strains is causing great concern; infection with these strains is often not curable and may result in death.
