TB Treatment
Treatment Completion
Pictures & Pages/Related Info
Identifying Concerns & Supports (Red Book pg. 23)
What is it
Taking all the doses of antibiotic prescribed by the doctor.
Key Points
Sometimes after people have been on treatment for a few months and are feeling better, they start to come less often for their antibiotics.
As the PHO, you can help encourage patients to continue their treatment, even if they are feeling better.
If a person seems to be struggling with their treatment (ex: remembering to take their pills), as the PHO, you can work with the patient to figure out ways to help the person succeed |  |
Active TB Treatment Completion
For Active TB, treatment completion is important because the person may not be fully treated for their TB and:
Their TB could come back.
A person could become sick again.
A person could become contagious again and spread TB to others.
Their TB could develop drug-resistance.
Drug-resistance is when the standard TB antibiotics stop working and it becomes harder to treat the TB than before.
This happens because the TB ‘learns’ how to avoid being killed by the antibiotics.
In rare cases, a person may need to restart a phase.
Latent TB Treatment Completion
For Latent TB, treatment completion is important because:
If too many days are missed, then the whole treatment might need to be restarted from the beginning.
Example conversation with someone who is having difficulties with treatment completion:
Active TB
I’m really glad you have been feeling better since you started taking your pills but it’s still really important to take all the doses that the doctor prescribed.
Finishing your treatment is important because your TB could come back, and you could be sick and even start spreading TB again.
Not only can your TB come back, but it can actually come back even stronger, meaning you might be more sick than before or your TB could be harder to treat.
Can we take a look at your treatment plan and see if there’s some things we can do to make it better for you?
Latent TB
In your situation with Sleeping TB, it’s okay to forget a few days but missing many might mean you need to restart from the beginning.
I know you don’t want that and neither do I. What are some things that we could do to help you finish your treatment. Some people have set reminders on their phone, what do you think about that?