Tuberculosis & Lung Cancer

Active tuberculosis presents with a persistent productive cough (often longer than 2-3 weeks), night sweats, unintentional weight loss, low-grade fever, and hemoptysis in more advanced cases; it requires airborne precautions (N95/PAPR, negative-pressure room) until the patient is confirmed non-infectious per specific criteria (typically a set number of consecutive negative sputum cultures, not simply symptom improvement). Multi-drug treatment (commonly four medications initially) continues for months, and the most common cause of treatment failure and drug-resistant TB is incomplete adherence — directly observed therapy is often used to support completion of the full course.