Q: I am a 21 years old girl, suffered from tuberculosis last year. It's been quite long since I am undergoing treatment (AKT). How long will active TB take to get cured completely?

A:The standard short course treatment for tuberculosis (TB), if it is active, is isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide (PZA), and ethambutol for two months, then isoniazid and rifampicin alone for a further four months. The patient is considered cured at six months (although there is still a relapse rate of 2 to 3%). In some patients 7-month continuation phase is recommended, they are: 1. Patients with cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis caused by drug-susceptible organisms and whose sputum culture obtained at the time of completion of 2 months of treatment is positive; 2. Patients whose initial phase of treatment did not include PZA For latent tuberculosis, the standard treatment is six to nine months of isoniazid alone. In my opinion you have already taken AKT for sufficient time so you should go for sputum microscopy for AFB bacilli, and if negative stop taking AKT. In case it turns out to be positive, ask for mycobacteria culture and drug susceptibility testing and your further treatment will depend on the test results.