Tuberculin Skin Tests: How To Prepare

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How To Prepare

Before having a tuberculin skin test, tell your health professional if you:

• Have symptoms of tuberculosis (TB), such as an ongoing cough, night sweats, or weight loss for no reason.
• Have had a positive tuberculin skin test in the past.
• Have had TB in the past.
• Have risk factors for TB. Risk factors include:
  • Contact with a person who has TB.
  • A job as a health care worker that may cause you to be exposed to people with TB.
  • Having lived or traveled in a country where TB is common.
• Have been given a TB vaccination. The vaccine contains a bacteria called BCG (bacille Calmette-Guérin) that is closely related to the bacteria that cause TB.
• Have been treated with medicines, such as corticosteroids, that can affect your immune system.
• Are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
• Have a skin rash that may make it hard to read the skin test.

Talk to your health professional about any concerns you have regarding the need for the test, its risks, how it will be done, or what the results will indicate. To help you understand the importance of this test, fill out the medical test information form (What is a PDF document?) .

Last updated:	May 18, 2007
Author:	Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS
Reviewed By:	E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine, Alfred A. Lardizabal, MD - Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine/Tuberculosis
Editors:	Susan Van Houten, RN, BSN, MBA, Tracy Landauer