fiance has mild tb

[tontontons 0]

we just found out that my fiance has mild TB... We havent done the medical or scheduled for interview yet... what should we do now? is our visa gonna get denied?

is our visa gonna be delayed? the doctor said with treatment she wont be contagious anymore in two weeks... will she have to stay in the philippines for the whole 6 months treatment? or can she continue here in the states? we are so lost... this is devastating news... please help us

[PhilAmTx 14]

we just found out that my fiance has mild TB... We havent done the medical or scheduled for interview yet... what should we do now? is our visa gonna get denied?

is our visa gonna be delayed? the doctor said with treatment she wont be contagious anymore in two weeks... will she have to stay in the philippines for the whole 6 months treatment? or can she continue here in the states? we are so lost... this is devastating news... please help us

its not the cause for denial.. don't worry about that.. as soon as your have Manila case #...go get your medical done... as what expected she would be + on TB...so she will have to undergo treatment for 6 months,,,she needs to visit SLEC everyday for treatment,,(where she lives?) if she lives far,there is a cheap condo where she can stay for the whole treatment..or maybe she has relatives in manila...then after she get cleared she can proceed to her interview... i hope this will help your worries... i am sorry about that btw... thats sad....

Edited August 3, 2011 by acrossthemiles

[tontontons 0]

so she will have to stay in manila till everything is cleared and all the treatment is done?

we already have the manila case number... and we had our doctor check her out before even going to the medical and scheduling for an interview.

[Tahoma 2,292]

You should be happy that her TB was detected, so that she can start treatment and get healthy again.

She can be treated in her hometown if she wants to. Then she can take the documentation of her treatment with her to St. Lukes.

Or, if she goes now for her medical at St. Lukes and they determine that she has TB, they will require her to take the medicine daily at St. Lukes.

You may want to contact the U.S. Embassy Manila in the near future, so that they can extend the validity of your approved petition.

May I ask how the doctor determined that she has TB? Is the doctor a pulmonologist? What tests were done? Did she have any symptoms?

[tontontons 0]

yes the doctor we went to is a pulmonologist. Can she have her treatment with her doctor? or does she really have to go through st lukes? Can she continue treatment here in the us? or is the whole treatment going to happen in manila?

[ILoveHim4Ever 0]

if i am in your situation, I will go to St. Luke's and proceed my medical. Because even if she will have her medication in the other doctor, and she is cured, during the St. Luke's medical, if they saw something in her X-ray, she will still undergo sputum smear for 3 days. if her smear is positive, automatically she will have her medication for 6 months. she'll be going to St. Luke's everyday to take the med! If her sputum smear is negative, she needs to wait for 2 months for the sputum culture.

And no need to pay additional charges for the medication for 6 months.

but after 6 months, when her medical is cleared --- they'll give you a schedule of your interview!

It'll be fine!

Edited August 3, 2011 by ILoveHim4Ever

[TeddyHoney 42]

we just found out that my fiance has mild TB... We havent done the medical or scheduled for interview yet... what should we do now? is our visa gonna get denied?

is our visa gonna be delayed? the doctor said with treatment she wont be contagious anymore in two weeks... will she have to stay in the philippines for the whole 6 months treatment? or can she continue here in the states? we are so lost... this is devastating news... please help us

Hi. Your Fiancee's VISA might be delayed but only if she has to have 3 day sputum collection and AFB (Acid Fast Bacteria) smear and 2 month culture. Then she would have to wait 2 months for culture results and if the results are negative she can return to SLEC to cmplete her exam and then proceed to her interview (You have to schedule this interview - SLEC will cancel your previous interview but you have to schedule the new one!). If her culture is positive, then she would start the 6 month treatment and she would have to go to SLEC every weekday and take the medicine there in their presence. She would not have to go on weekends because they distribute the medicine for the wekend days on the Friday before.

So, since you have your MNL Case #, you are ready to schedule her interview and once you've done that you can proceed to SLEC for her Medical Exam. I recommend/suggest that since you are so near to the Medical Exam, just go there and let SLEC drive your actions from there. That's just my recommendation/suggestion. Its up to you. It will go like this:

- At your fiancee's Medical Exam they will do a Chest X-ray

- If it is clear and they tell her to proceed to immunization, your worries are over - at least for the Medical Exam

- IF they find any abnormality or scar or spot on the chest X-ray, they will ask your Fiancee to come back to SLEC at another time they will schedule for her for 3 day sputum collection AFB smear and Sputum collection for culture test.

- They will give her a date to call SLEC to get results of her culture test. This date will be about 2 months out.

- If her culture test results are negative, she will go back to complete her exam and get immunizations and can then proceeed to the interview that you guys scheduled during the two month wait.

- If her culture test is positive, they will probably call her before the end of the 2 months and have her start treatment. This will take 6 months minimum and then at the end of the 6 months she will again have a 2 month wait for another cutlure test! So you're looking at 8 months total if her first culture test is positive after 2 months.

During the interview at some point they will ask about her medical history. If I were you I would tell her to reveal everything including her local Pulmonologist's findings and diagnosis of ptb. At that point you may as well tell the truth because either way SLEC has the last word in determining your fiancee's condition and what treatment will be administered. And if you tell the truth you will have one less worry (as opposed to lying and then worrying if that lie will come back to bite you at some point!). Because your worst case is the 8 month wait if her culture test is positive.

You could have your Fiancee start treatment now with her local physicians. Since you are so close to having Medical Exam, I don;t know what you would gain by doing that. Maybe 2 months or so because she would be taking medicine while you wait culture test results? But they may make you complete the treatment (4 more months in that case) before they do a culture, which is what happened to my fiancee and I. She was already 3 months into treatment when she had her medical. Then she came back for sputum about 2 weeks later as we knew they would find spot on her lung cuz of previous x-ray before her medical. But we though they would just do sputum and it would be negative and we would be on our way to interview! NOT!! They said since she was already on the medicine they would have her complete the treatment at SLEC (she was taking medicine by her local physician for the 3 months prior) first and then they would do culture. So again, that's up to you. But we feel my fiancee did not have ptb and would have passed negative on the 2 month culture but her being on the medicine already delayed us for another 5 months! Of course I don;t know for sure if she would have been negative on the culture test, but we can't help feeling that she might have. But then again, if she hadn't started the medicine back in March and she did have positive culture then we are 5 months ahead because the end of the 2 months culture for my fiancee would have been end of July and if it were positive we would be looking at the 8 months (6 months medicine treatment and 2 months culture after that!) instead of the 3 months we are now down too. (Complicated - I know!)

Choice is yours of course. I just recommend and suggest and tried to explain why. Still I think the easy and less complicated way is to just let SLEC make all the calls on what you do cuz you are so close to having the exam anyway.

I hope this helps! God bless on the Medical and the rest of your VISA journey!

[Tahoma 2,292]

yes the doctor we went to is a pulmonologist. Can she have her treatment with her doctor? or does she really have to go through st lukes? Can she continue treatment here in the us? or is the whole treatment going to happen in manila?

She will have to complete her treatment in Manila. She will not get a visa until she passes her medical at St. Lukes. She will not pass her medical at St. Lukes until her treatment is complete and her subsequent culture comes back negative.

Can you tell me how the pulmonologist determined that she has TB?

[Tahoma 2,292]

Hi. Your Fiancee's VISA might be delayed but only if she has to have 3 day sputum collection and AFB (Acid Fast Bacteria) smear and 2 month culture. Then she would have to wait 2 months for culture results and if the results are negative she can return to SLEC to cmplete her exam and then proceed to her interview (You have to schedule this interview - SLEC will cancel your previous interview but you have to schedule the new one!). If her culture is positive, then she would start the 6 month treatment and she would have to go to SLEC every weekday and take the medicine there in their presence. She would not have to go on weekends because they distribute the medicine for the wekend days on the Friday before.

I read in a recent thread here on VJ that St. Lukes doesn't always wait to start treatment until the two-month culture comes back positive. Apparently, St. Lukes will sometimes start treatment shortly after the smear tests come back positive. I don't know the reason for this.

So, since you have your MNL Case #, you are ready to schedule her interview and once you've done that you can proceed to SLEC for her Medical Exam. I recommend/suggest that since you are so near to the Medical Exam, just go there and let SLEC drive your actions from there. That's just my recommendation/suggestion. Its up to you.

It's not necessary to schedule an interview before the medical. You can be admitted for the medical using your NOA2 and your MNL case number.

I agree that she should go to St. Lukes for her medical and let them handle the diagnosis and potential treatment. It would be faster. Also, more importantly, she may have been misdiagnosed by her private doctor.

It will go like this:

- At your fiancee's Medical Exam they will do a Chest X-ray

- If it is clear and they tell her to proceed to immunization, your worries are over - at least for the Medical Exam

- IF they find any abnormality or scar or spot on the chest X-ray, they will ask your Fiancee to come back to SLEC at another time they will schedule for her for 3 day sputum collection AFB smear and Sputum collection for culture test.

- They will give her a date to call SLEC to get results of her culture test. This date will be about 2 months out.

- If her culture test results are negative, she will go back to complete her exam and get immunizations and can then proceeed to the interview that you guys scheduled during the two month wait.

- If her culture test is positive, they will probably call her before the end of the 2 months and have her start treatment. This will take 6 months minimum and then at the end of the 6 months she will again have a 2 month wait for another cutlure test! So you're looking at 8 months total if her first culture test is positive after 2 months.

During the interview at some point they will ask about her medical history. If I were you I would tell her to reveal everything including her local Pulmonologist's findings and diagnosis of ptb. At that point you may as well tell the truth because either way SLEC has the last word in determining your fiancee's condition and what treatment will be administered. And if you tell the truth you will have one less worry (as opposed to lying and then worrying if that lie will come back to bite you at some point!). Because your worst case is the 8 month wait if her culture test is positive.

At Embassy interviews, consular officers rarely ask anything about medical history. However, St. Lukes will ask her about her medical history, including her TB history. If she lies to St. Lukes and she's caught lying, she's risking her visa approval. Always tell the truth.

You could have your Fiancee start treatment now with her local physicians. Since you are so close to having Medical Exam, I don;t know what you would gain by doing that. Maybe 2 months or so because she would be taking medicine while you wait culture test results? But they may make you complete the treatment (4 more months in that case) before they do a culture, which is what happened to my fiancee and I. She was already 3 months into treatment when she had her medical. Then she came back for sputum about 2 weeks later as we knew they would find spot on her lung cuz of previous x-ray before her medical. But we though they would just do sputum and it would be negative and we would be on our way to interview! NOT!! They said since she was already on the medicine they would have her complete the treatment at SLEC (she was taking medicine by her local physician for the 3 months prior) first and then they would do culture. So again, that's up to you. But we feel my fiancee did not have ptb and would have passed negative on the 2 month culture but her being on the medicine already delayed us for another 5 months! Of course I don;t know for sure if she would have been negative on the culture test, but we can't help feeling that she might have. But then again, if she hadn't started the medicine back in March and she did have positive culture then we are 5 months ahead because the end of the 2 months culture for my fiancee would have been end of July and if it were positive we would be looking at the 8 months (6 months medicine treatment and 2 months culture after that!) instead of the 3 months we are now down too. (Complicated - I know!)

Choice is yours of course. I just recommend and suggest and tried to explain why. Still I think the easy and less complicated way is to just let SLEC make all the calls on what you do cuz you are so close to having the exam anyway.

I agree. Let St. Lukes handle it since you have your NOA2 and you are so close to the medical. And again, it's a very good idea to let St. Lukes handle it because there's a very real possibility that she could have been misdiagnosed by her local doctor. On what basis did her local doctor diagnose her TB? Was it simply a chest x-ray and a skin test? If so, I would definitely get a second opinion which included a smear test and a culture because skin tests are extremely unreliable for Filipinos since most of them have had the BCG vaccine.

I hope this helps! God bless on the Medical and the rest of your VISA journey!

[TeddyHoney 42]

"During the interview at some point they will ask about her medical history. If I were you I would tell her to reveal everything including her local Pulmonologist's findings and diagnosis of ptb. At that point you may as well tell the truth because either way SLEC has the last word in determining your fiancee's condition and what treatment will be administered. And if you tell the truth you will have one less worry (as opposed to lying and then worrying if that lie will come back to bite you at some point!). Because your worst case is the 8 month wait if her culture test is positive."

"At Embassy interviews, consular officers rarely ask anything about medical history. However, St. Lukes will ask her about her medical history, including her TB history. If she lies to St. Lukes and she's caught lying, she's risking her visa approval. Always tell the truth."

Oooops! I meant Medical Exam.

[Jubi & Tony 3]

My Fiancee had a mild case of TB 6 years ago and was treated by her physician (she brought all documentation of treatment with her to medical) but from what I understand and what people are recommending here is that you should go to ST Lukes for treatment. If you don't, what will happen is that you will undergo 6 months of treatment at her local physician to then go to St Lukes who will then perform the SMEAR test (3 days) and SPUTUM test (2 months) on top of the 6 months of treatment. Why? St Lukes is responsible to make sure that you are TB cleared and if they didn't do the treatment than they won't trust the results provided by an outside agency. If you use your local physician you could be looking at up to 8 months total process time where if you use St. Lukes it will be completed after 6 Months.

[giorgiannap357 0]

I would get a second opinion on this. My family is from a different country as well, where back in the days they used to give a TB vaccine (it was mandatory) and because of that vaccine my father had to get a TB test here in the states and it came out positive. His job requires he does medical tests every year. Needless to say every year his test comes out positive on TB, yet when they investigate further they realize it is because of that vaccine he had when he was young. However before they investigate and he gets to see the specialist, they recommend he takes the medicine for TB. THe medicine they give for TB is very strong and can damage your liver. I would as I said get a second opinion before taking strong meds for 6 months. She may also have had that vaccine when she was young. My father had his tests done at a prestigious hospital in NYC and they were wrong.

[Tahoma 2,292]

My Fiancee had a mild case of TB 6 years ago and was treated by her physician (she brought all documentation of treatment with her to medical) but from what I understand and what people are recommending here is that you should go to ST Lukes for treatment. If you don't, what will happen is that you will undergo 6 months of treatment at her local physician to then go to St Lukes who will then perform the SMEAR test (3 days) and SPUTUM test (2 months) on top of the 6 months of treatment. Why? St Lukes is responsible to make sure that you are TB cleared and if they didn't do the treatment than they won't trust the results provided by an outside agency. If you use your local physician you could be looking at up to 8 months total process time where if you use St. Lukes it will be completed after 6 Months.

I agree that it would be faster to skip the local doctor and, instead, go to St. Lukes for treatment.

Also, I believe that it is important to go to St. Lukes for diagnosis. The reason I say this is because I have seen cases here on VJ where the local doctor based their diagnosis on a chest x-ray and a skin test. It is my understanding that this method of diagnosis is not a good way to diagnose Filipinos for TB since most of them had the BCG vaccine when they were young. Having had the BCG vaccine will almost always give a false positive on the skin test. The x-ray, combined with the smear tests and the culture is a much more accurate way to determine whether she has TB.

I don't necessarily agree with what you said about St. Lukes trusting an outside agency. My understanding is that St. Lukes will accept an outside diagnosis and treatment if it was done by a reputable clinic/hospital and it is well-documented. However, St. Lukes will still require a chest x-ray, and if they see any abnormality, they will require the smear tests and the culture.

[Tahoma 2,292]

I would get a second opinion on this. My family is from a different country as well, where back in the days they used to give a TB vaccine (it was mandatory) and because of that vaccine my father had to get a TB test here in the states and it came out positive. His job requires he does medical tests every year. Needless to say every year his test comes out positive on TB, yet when they investigate further they realize it is because of that vaccine he had when he was young. However before they investigate and he gets to see the specialist, they recommend he takes the medicine for TB. THe medicine they give for TB is very strong and can damage your liver. I would as I said get a second opinion before taking strong meds for 6 months. She may also have had that vaccine when she was young. My father had his tests done at a prestigious hospital in NYC and they were wrong.

Good post. They probably took an x-ray and gave him a skin test!!!

OP...I hope you recommend to your fiancée that she go to St. Lukes for her medical as soon as possible. If she has an abnormality on her chest x-ray, she needs to have the smear tests and the culture. If the smear tests are positive for TB, I believe they sometimes start the medication right away.

[TeddyHoney 42]

I agree that it would be faster to skip the local doctor and, instead, go to St. Lukes for treatment.

Also, I believe that it is important to go to St. Lukes for diagnosis. The reason I say this is because I have seen cases here on VJ where the local doctor based their diagnosis on a chest x-ray and a skin test. It is my understanding that this method of diagnosis is not a good way to diagnose Filipinos for TB since most of them had the BCG vaccine when they were young. Having had the BCG vaccine will almost always give a false positive on the skin test. The x-ray, combined with the smear tests and the culture is a much more accurate way to determine whether she has TB.

I don't necessarily agree with what you said about St. Lukes trusting an outside agency. My understanding is that St. Lukes will accept an outside diagnosis and treatment if it was done by a reputable clinic/hospital and it is well-documented. However, St. Lukes will still require a chest x-ray, and if they see any abnormality, they will require the smear tests and the culture.

My fiancee took 3 months of ptb medicine (She told me what type but I forgot!) prescribed by a local Pulmonologist prior to her Medical Exam. When she was scheduled back to SLEC for 3 day sputum and culture she took with her a signed certificate/document from that Pulmonologist and SLEC accepted it and her 3 months treatment completed so she only needed 3 more months of treatment done at SLEC. My fiancee lives very near to Manila and we are done to 1 month treatment remaining. But yes, SLEC accepted the certificate from her Pulmonologist.