A medical history and physical examination is an essential part of the patient evaluation. It cannot be used to confirm or rule out TB, but it provides valuable information about the patient’s overall condition, including potential sites of EPTB and other factors that affect TB treatment decisions.

• Ask a person with suspected TB about their history of TB exposure, infection, or disease.
• Consider other factors or conditions, especially HIV infection but also diabetes, smoking, heavy drinking, malnutrition and immunosuppressant therapies that increase the risk of developing active TB disease. (Ref.)