Lungs · 4 min read · 2026-02-03

Tuberculosis: the cough people still hide

Tuberculosis is common, curable, and made worse by secrecy. A cough that lasts, with fever and weight loss, should be tested. Sharing a house with someone on treatment is a reason to ask about your own symptoms.

This page is general education for families in Gurugram. It is not a diagnosis, a medicine list, or a reason to skip a clinician. Doses are deliberately not given.

In plain language

TB is a bacterial infection, usually of the lung, spread by cough in close contact. It is not spread by a handshake or by finishing someone’s meal once. Treatment is several medicines for several months. Stopping when you feel better breeds resistance, and resistant TB is a much harder illness. Testing contacts is part of care, not an accusation.

Signs worth noticing

These are the clues families usually notice first. One of them, on its own, is not a diagnosis.

Cough for more than two or three weeks.
Fever, night sweats, and loss of appetite or weight.
Coughing blood.
A child in the house who is failing to thrive while an adult has a chronic cough.

What usually sits underneath

The germ grows slowly. The body walls it off. When immunity dips — from diabetes, HIV, malnutrition, or simply bad luck — it wakes. Diabetes and TB are a common pair and each makes the other worse.

Care that is reasonable at home

Cover coughs. Sleep with some ventilation, not in a permanently sealed room.
If you are started on treatment, take every dose. Tell the clinic if a dose is missed. Do not decide the course is over because you feel fine.
Get household contacts screened as advised, especially children and people with diabetes.
Eat enough. Treatment fails more often in people who are starving.

These steps are for someone who is otherwise stable. If the picture is changing quickly, skip the home trial and come in.

When waiting is a bad idea

Coughing blood in any amount that is more than a streak you are unsure about, or breathlessness.
Yellow eyes or severe vomiting on treatment. The medicines can affect the liver. Report it. Do not quietly stop all of them without advice.
A child with fever and cough who has been around TB.

How Rao Lokram Charitable Trust fits in

Testing and treatment are available through the public programme and through clinicians. Come to OPD rather than buying one random antibiotic. OPD runs Monday to Sunday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM at Near Rockford School, Anaj Mandi Chowk, Kadipur Road, Shakti Park, Sector 10A, Gurugram, Haryana. Call 98185 48492 or 70423 28047. There is no appointment form on this website.

Questions people ask

Is TB a shameful disease?

No. It is an infectious disease with a known cure. Hiding it infects the family.

Can I stay at home?

Many people are treated at home and become much less infectious after they start the right medicines. Follow the advice you are given about the first weeks.

Do I need a special diet?

You need enough ordinary food: grains, dal, vegetables, and protein you can afford. No miracle powder.

If this sounds like you, bring the article on your phone if you want, but let the clinician examine you. Old reports and a list of current medicines make the visit shorter.