TB Skin Test
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 8
TB Skin Test
Why wife and I moved here on H1B/H4 visas last year and are now filing for adjustment of status. We have had the medical exam by a civil surgeon here in SF, and had appropriate vaccinations and the TB skin test done. We are now about 40 hours in since the test and to my eyes it looks positive - red and puffy - on both of us. We were both BCG vaccinated in our teens and would assume very low risk.
I hadn't realised at the time that BCG vaccination had any effect, else I would have gone for the blood test. It looks like this result will mean referral for treatment, even with a clear chest xray (which from what I have read, will come next).
Has anyone had any experience with this? Particularly in California?
Nothing ever seems to be simple!
Thanks
I hadn't realised at the time that BCG vaccination had any effect, else I would have gone for the blood test. It looks like this result will mean referral for treatment, even with a clear chest xray (which from what I have read, will come next).
Has anyone had any experience with this? Particularly in California?
Nothing ever seems to be simple!
Thanks
#2
Re: TB Skin Test
This happened to a friend, she had to have the chest xray done which was clear and that was that. We are in TX where the authorities are very careful about TB.
#3
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,865
Re: TB Skin Test
BCG vaccine causes false positives to the skin test subsequently. When I applied for a green card, the doctor didn't even bother with a skin test and just sent me for an X-ray instead.
Last edited by Giantaxe; Feb 8th 2018 at 5:52 pm.
#4
Re: TB Skin Test
Skin tests show positive if you've ever had TB, not necessarily that you have current active TB.
#5
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2007
Location: Charlotte,NC
Posts: 1,717
Re: TB Skin Test
Yes this happened to me - I just got an x-ray later that day and it delayed the medical results by 3 days. The doctor says happens to a lot of Europeans who have been vaccinated.
#6
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2016
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 334
Re: TB Skin Test
Wow. I missed my BCG in my teen days as I was absent for the "six pricks". Thankfully I walked my skin test, good to know that it can cause false positives though.
#7
Re: TB Skin Test
We had a new immune-assay test when we presented for our medicals. There is a method which uses part of the blood test to test for immunity caused by the vaccination.
Interferon Gamma release assay was the name.
Interferon Gamma release assay was the name.
#8
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: from Yorkshire, via Hampshire and Surrey to NC Triangle
Posts: 76
Re: TB Skin Test
Same, due to vaccine, sent for X-ray to receive all clear.
#9
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Re: TB Skin Test
Same happened for me, well I did not at the time realise what it was for, and was told I was positive.
Pointed out that they had not X Ray'd so how could they tell and suddenly you could see the light bulb go on.
Pointed out that they had not X Ray'd so how could they tell and suddenly you could see the light bulb go on.
#11
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2013
Location: Clarksville, TN
Posts: 392
Re: TB Skin Test
If your test is positive there some controversy about whether the BCG can cause a positive result. I have had this issue for thirty years! Now there is some doubt about the reliability of the Interferon-Gamma Release Assays because of many false positives. I just get a chest x-ray every so often.
Last edited by DebzinUS; Feb 9th 2018 at 7:24 pm.
#12
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 2,900
Re: TB Skin Test
When you go to work in the education system in the US you have to have a TB skin test and false positives also happen a lot.
Just means they will send you to a chest x-ray if there is any doubt, and some places just go straight to the chest x-ray now and skip the skin test, like the earlier poster said.
Even if you are actually positive - it's not the end of the road. Latent TB infection is not a show-stopper for visas; inactive TB cannot be spread to someone else and won't make you sick, but there are extra steps/requirements for visas and local health departments etc. I can't recall exactly what. Latent TB can of course become active - but that is a possibility not a certainty.
It's not a disease that spreads through casual contact, someone has to be symptomatic with active TB, and then it spreads through the air.
Just means they will send you to a chest x-ray if there is any doubt, and some places just go straight to the chest x-ray now and skip the skin test, like the earlier poster said.
Even if you are actually positive - it's not the end of the road. Latent TB infection is not a show-stopper for visas; inactive TB cannot be spread to someone else and won't make you sick, but there are extra steps/requirements for visas and local health departments etc. I can't recall exactly what. Latent TB can of course become active - but that is a possibility not a certainty.
It's not a disease that spreads through casual contact, someone has to be symptomatic with active TB, and then it spreads through the air.
#14
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 946
Re: TB Skin Test
If you had the BCG it's a false positive: I did the qantiferon TB test instead so you can probably ask to do that instead of an xray - whichever is cheaper.
#15
Just Joined
Joined: Mar 2015
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 14
Re: TB Skin Test
I had the BCG as a child and got a negative result from the skin test as part of my green card medical (twice in fact, as due to processing times the first medical expired) - so it doesn't always result in a false positive.
Red puffiness is fine - per DebzinUS above, it is the size of the hard raised area that determines whether the result is interpreted as a positive or negative reaction.
https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/testing/tbtesttypes.htm
Red puffiness is fine - per DebzinUS above, it is the size of the hard raised area that determines whether the result is interpreted as a positive or negative reaction.
https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/testing/tbtesttypes.htm