What are the symptoms of tuberculosis(TB)

Condition analysis:
The general symptoms of TB disease include feelings of sickness or weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats. The symptoms of TB disease of the lungs also include coughing, chest pain and the coughing up of blood. Symptoms of TB disease in other parts of the body depend on the area affected.

Instructions:
Drug therapy
For initial empiric treatment of TB, start patients on a 4-drug regimen: isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and either ethambutol or streptomycin. Once the TB isolate is known to be fully susceptible, ethambutol (or streptomycin, if it is used as a fourth drug) can be discontinued. 

Patients with TB who are receiving pyrazinamide should undergo baseline and periodic serum uric acid assessments, and patients with TB who are receiving long-term ethambutol therapy should undergo baseline and periodic visual acuity and red-green color perception testing. The latter can be performed with a standard test, such as the Ishihara test for color blindness.

After 2 months of therapy (for a fully susceptible isolate), pyrazinamide can be stopped. Isoniazid plus rifampin are continued as daily or intermittent therapy for 4 more months. If isolated isoniazid resistance is documented, discontinue isoniazid and continue treatment with rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol for the entire 6 months. Therapy must be extended if the patient has cavitary disease and remains culture-positive after 2 months of treatment.
Directly observed therapy (DOT) is recommended for all patients. With DOT, patients on the above regimens can be switched to 2- to 3-times per week dosing after an initial 2 weeks of daily dosing. Patients on twice-weekly dosing must not miss any doses. Prescribe daily therapy for patients on self-administered medication.