[Sally26]

I haven't had Emily tested for TB. A friend that has adopted twice from Russia, insists that I should. The IA doctor told me not to have her tested for TB until her vaccination scar (on her upper arm, that was done in Russia) completely healed. Do I need to have her tested? If so, why? My pediatrictian hasn't even suggested it, but she's not an IA doc.
Thanks!

[kimber413]

Our pediatrician suggested it because he just doesn't trust a lot of the tests performed in eastern europe. It didn't take much, and Kaitlin didn't seem to get very upset about it.

[waitinginnj]

My daughter was tested. Just makes sense to me. If she had it, I wanted to deal with the issue and move on so that the symptoms wouldn't get worse or cause permanent damage.

[aimeemk]

If the child had a BCG vaccination recently then she/he will test postive. Your IA doc and pedi probably want to prevent a false postive.

[Sally26]

My understanding is that you can be exposed to it and not have it, but test positive and have take medicine for nine months.
If I'm wrong, please let me know. I want to be educated on this issure.

[jenn13]

We adopted 2 boys and 1 of my sons tested positive for tb. He had to go for a chest xray to prove that the tb was not active. It is possible that he was exposed or reacted to the vaccination he was given at birth.

Regardless of the reason our state mandates that he must take the 9 month course of medication to kill any inactive tb in his system. Our pediatrician also recommended the medication on a personal level since we really did not know what was causing the positive results. Better safe than sorry!

We will get a letter from the pediatrician stating that he never has to be tested again due to the course of medication he has taken. It seems that even after the medication he will always test positive.

The medicine has been a non issue with him. He takes his pills with his juice in the morning. He has had no side effects from the medication. We have 2 months left to go.

If you have any other questions please feel free to pm me.

Jenn

[hadams]

If you were given the BCG vaccination, you have a much greater chance of testing positive on a TB test.

However, if you were given the BCG vaccination, you may also have been exposed to TB, as the vaccine does not have a high efficacy rate.

So, if a child with BCG tests positive (which they almost always will), they should get chest x-ray to prove they are not full TB.

Then, they should probably take the 9 month course of medicine to make sure that if their positive reaction was caused by exposure and not the vaccine, they are not latent.

The only way you are going to get out of giving the 9 month course then is by having a negative result on the test.

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.

[Beaglepup]

Our daughter has the scar on her upper arm, but I thought it was a smallpox vaccine. The embassy doctor in russia said it was TB, but it looks just like the smallpox vaccine we used to give here.

Anyway, she just tested negative for TB with the simple skin test. We didn't even request the test. Our pediatrician follows the CDC recommendations for all the tests and that's one that recommended.

Good luck!

[momm2be]

Dear daughter had a positive skin test 1 1/2 years ago, and a negative chest xray at the clinic in Moscow.

Due to lack of understanding of the TB vaccine in my suburban community I was still was forced to treat her for nine months - coming to the end next month. From my education I think there is alot of misunderstanding to what latent TB really is vs an vaccination induced immune response. Unfortunately there is nothing to differentiate it at this point.

This is not a big deal, unless your child does not tolerate the medication. My daughter regurgitated for the first 5 months after every dose and then sporadically for the next several hours. So it kind of sucked to put a healthy child on medication that most likely is unnecessary.

Ask alot of questions... and then go with your gut. Going back I would have taken her to an ID specialist but she was so doctor phobic once we started I just thought we could get it over with.

[aimeemk]

As a registered nurse I actually give and read TB tests.

If the child was given BCG less than 9 months ago the reaction will read positive 100% of the time. This is why they wait to test for TB. If it has been more than nine months since the vaccination of BCG then it is okay to test for TB. Even after the 9 month period the reaction may read positive so they read them on a different scale. The reaction will still be postive on normal standards but negative with BCG standards. The reaction with normal (not ever given BCG) is less than 5mm duration. If you received BCG then a positive reaction would be if the duration exceeds 10mm.

To the OP if your daughters arm is not even healed it has probably too soon to test.

BCG is a freshly prepared vaccination containing bovine bacilli with reduced virulence. It produces definite although incomplete protection (50%) against TB.
source Whaley & Wong's "Nursing Care of Infants and Children"


A lot of children from CHina are not tested either.

[Kasey]

we had our son tested a monthafter coming home and it was positive, so he had a chest x-ray it was negative, we repeated it in 6 months and was still positive (and actually larger reaction), we met with the IA doc several times along with pulmonogist and infectious disease specialists at Children's Hospital, we opted to treat him with INH, mainly over the concern that the bacteria essentially stay in the lungs and can come out later in childhood as a bad infection. he has done very well with it, we have the pills, crush them in his food and he has had no side effects. The younger they are when you treat them, the better they do side effect wise. My feeling in regards to treatment was better safe than sorry.
Best wishes!

[jmchowat]

As far as I know, you don't usually have the TB vaccine until older (in England you are 11). If you have had it, then you are always going to test positive with the skin test. So if your child has what you think is a TB scar and tests negative, then there is a problem.


I can't remember if we had a TB test done when we brought our son home, but we had one done recently for our next adoption and he was fine

[MustangLippy]

And the child doesn't have to take the treatment in all states even if the child does test positive for latent TB - at least not in our state. Its something to be decided between you and your doc.

[Sally26]

Thank you for all your reply's!

Aimee, I'm printing what you posted and taking it to the pediatritian the next time we go in.

Great inforamtion! I knew yall could get me up to speed on this issue!

[HollyB]

I was just at the clinic today having the chest x-rays done and read. We will be treating for nine months with INH. I wanted someone to give me a little info. regarding this med and if their child had any side effects. (I pray I'm not dealing with three regurgitating children! That must have been rough.)
All three of our adopted children tested positive with the mantoux. One has TB documented on her medical from Russia. The other medicals are difficult to decipher.