Previous pneumonia

World Immigration

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I had pneumonia which i was hospital treated for 12 years ago. I had a CXR which showed a pencil like scar. I was not a nurse then but the doctors told me i had nothing sinister. I have been fine since, no other chest infections since this happened. Actually I forgot about it , not thinking it was relevant , However i am aware that the usa embassy will want more info on this.

I have had a BCG , so worried that if i was to test positive on the TB skin test and with my previous scar. Wrong conclusions may be drawn. Does anyone know what evidence i should be gathering?

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Ps just to add 5 years ago, occupational health in my nurse training had no concerns about it. Hence why i did not think it was relevant.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

It won't be a problem. Get documents about your BCG so some genius won't give you PPD. Scars from old pneumonia don't look like active TB.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.

A T-spot (or quantiferon gold) is a simple blood draw that can determine if a positive skin test is from BCG or actual exposure. For our international students, we don't even do a skin test anymore. Too many countries administer BCGs and too many skin tests show false positives. We go right to the T-spot because it isn't thrown off by a prvious BCG. Good luck.

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Thank you so much for your responses :) That has helped a lot!

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