(a) Treatment of infection, no disease.
- (1) Preventive therapy is the administration of a drug to which a person's infecting organism is susceptible. Preventive therapy substantially reduces the risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB) in infected persons.
- (2) All persons who have a positive skin test shall be considered for preventive therapy when active disease has been ruled out.
(b) Treatment of active disease.
- (1) When symptoms and/or results of skin test, chest x-ray, and sputum smear suggest active tuberculosis (TB), the suspect shall be placed on a TB treatment regimen consisting of four drugs until TB has been ruled out, unless another regimen is indicated due to contraindications to one or more of the preferred drugs.
- (2) Clinical response to treatment shall be monitored, since the development of drug resistance can be a problem. Persons with clinically active disease shall be monitored bacteriologically through the collection of three sputum samples taken on three consecutive days at least monthly until conversion to negative is confirmed by all cultures being negative in two consecutive months. Persistence or reappearance of organisms in the sputum smear shall create a high index of suspicion for drug-resistant disease or noncompliance with therapy. When this occurs, evaluate compliance and perform drug susceptibility tests, in addition to those obtained from the initial positive cultures.
- (3) Treatment of TB shall be in accordance with current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)/American Thoracic Society (ATS) recommendations and the recommendations of the department.
Source Note:The provisions of this §97.176 adopted to be effective May 16, 1994, 19 TexReg 3370.