MovieChat Forums > Tombstone (1993) Discussion > How does TB get transmitted?

How does TB get transmitted?

posted 8 years ago by jgroub
7 replies | jump to latest

I know I'm at IMDb, not MedLine or MayoClinic.com. But I just don't understand why anyone around someone whose got TB doesn't also get TB. Or why they aren't even taking any precautions around him - keeping their distance, and definitely not kissing or screwing him.

I've never understood TB. How do you get it, if not by close contact with someone whose got it? Anyone out there with a medical background who can explain this to me?

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] Chloe1251 8 years ago

TB is not easy to catch, and in Doc's days the average person didn't understand the transmission of disease by germs.

I'm not a doctor, but a quick Google shows all the facts:
http://www.healthunit.org/infectious/tb/tb_spread.htm

[–] jgroub 8 years ago

Thanks. I had actually read that one before posting. It just seems like TB is the opposite of all other communicable diseases that we're familiar with. You stay away from someone with a cold, or flu, or ebola. But TB? Go ahead and French kiss away, you won't get it.

It's almost as if TB itself has evolved NOT to be spread. Why would any communicable disease evolve that way? Weird.

I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

[–] Chloe1251 8 years ago

As mentioned in the article, it seems people whose health is already compromised are at risk to catch it.

French kiss away, you won't get it.

I guess Kate had a healthy immune system!:)

[–] Bilwick1 8 years ago

So did Laurence Olivier. He certainly must have had a lot of up-close-and-personal interaction with the tubercular Vivian Leigh, and he long outlived her and died of something else.

[–] aliholly9389 8 years ago

It's not easy to catch, but it is. That's why, at least for job in the medical field, we get asked if we've ever been in contact with someone who has had it, and we need to get tested every 6 months.

I remember there was a scare about 10 years ago about a guy who had been diagnosed with it and he wanted to travel and there was a big scare about him being on an airplane...it was a long time ago so the details are a little hazy.

[–] Drachen77 8 years ago

When I was in the Air Force, a fellow airman got TB in South Korea and was held there for 3 extra months on medical hold. Felt bad for the guy.

[–] OnlyRocknRoll 8 years ago

Holliday was a dentist which is how he contracted it. Dentists didn't wear masks in those days. Now they do. Dentists weren't even wearing masks in the 70's and 80's until they realized they were spreading Hepatitis among their patients.

TB, like Leprosy and AIDS, has a very long incubation period.

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