Tuberculosis and HIV disease

November 2004     View PDF     En español

What are the symptoms?

Not all people with TB have symptoms unless they have active disease. The most common place for active TB is in the lungs and symptoms include a prolonged cough (lasting over 2 weeks), pain in the chest and coughing up fluid (sometimes with blood). A chart of symptoms is shown in the box below. Children infected with TB near their time of birth may have TB in many organs. They may have difficulty breathing or feeding and fail to grow at the normal rate.

Some symptoms of TB disease are similar to symptoms of other common HIV-related infections like toxoplasmosis, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Therefore, it’s important to make sure that when symptoms appear they are appropriately diagnosed and treated the right way.

Symptoms of active TB disease