Tuberculosis Treatment - Directly Observed Therapy
What is directly observed therapy (DOT)?
DOT is a program used to cure tuberculosis (TB). When someone has TB, they need to take TB medicine for six months or longer. A visiting nurse is used to help people take their TB medicine.
How does DOT work?
A visiting nurse will meet with you at your home or another place every day to give you your medicine. The nurse will continue to visit you until you are finished your TB medicine.
How can your visiting DOT nurse help you?
While taking your TB medicine, your DOT nurse will help you take your medicine correctly and monitor you for side effects.
Tell your nurse if you have any of these side effects:
- "Pins and needles" feeling in your hands or feet
- Poor appetite, feeling sick to your stomach or vomiting, or fever that lasts for longer than three days
- Your skin or the white part of your eyes turns yellow
- Light coloured bowel movements
- Tenderness in the stomach area
- Blurred vision or not able to distinguish colours
- Skin rash
Why is it important to take your TB medicine every day?
- To be effective, your medicine must be taken every day for as long as your doctor orders it.
- If you don't take your TB medicine every day, the TB germs may become resistant to the medicine. This would make curing the disease much more difficult.
- It is very important to take your TB medicine even when you feel better because it takes a long time to kill every TB germ.
Other important things to remember:
- Keep your appointments at the TB clinic, KFL&A Public Health or your doctor's office. These appointments help to monitor how well you are doing.
- If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your visiting nurse or call KFL&A Public Health at 613-549-1232 or 1-800-267-7875.
Revised: 2014-07-16