Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I am in the US, but my friend lives in Rishikesh and she was diagnosed with TB. She was told she has a closed TB and nothing can be seen on the x-ray. She is now on her 3rd month of medication and was told to take it for a total of 10 months. I am very concerned about her and have several questions.
[|AI|]  Hello ! Can you please mention in which organ in the body your friend was diagnosed to have TB ? Because TB can affect any organ n from head to toe. Since u mentioned X-ray, I presume you might be speaking about Pulmonary TB. For diagnosing pulmonary TB clinical (patients presentation symptoms and signs), radiological (Chest x-ray, high resolution CT appearance), microbiological (sputum AFB, sputum CBN AAT testing) findings need to be correlated.  The common symptoms suggestive of TB are cough for more than 2 weeks duration not subsiding with routine antibiotics, fever with evening rise in temperature, bloody sputum (hemoptysis), loss of appetite n loss of weight.  Did your friend have any of these symptoms ? If yes then definitely investigations to rule out or rule in TB have to be proceeded with. Also, two things need to be kept in mind.  One, not always chest x-ray show some abnormality in TB.  If there is minimal lesion then only a HRCT chest can pick it up, and it can be missed on chest x-ray.  Two, Since TB is common in India, at times, other diseases are wrongly diagnosed to be TB. Hence, it's essential that you get the consultation with a qualified physician to ensure that diagnosis is correctly arrived at.  As far as the treatment for TB is concerned, if this is the first time your friend is taking anti-TB medications then he/she has to take it for 6 months.  If this is second time then the course will be for 8 months