Tuberculosis screening
Tuberculosis is a rare disease in Finland. It has been almost completely eradicated due to good medical care. If you were born or have lived in a region where tuberculosis is common (Africa, Asia, and Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia in Eastern Europe), you may have the disease and infect those around you without knowing.
If you belong to a risk group or have moved to Finland from a risk area, please read the FSHS screening instructions and act accordingly. Tuberculosis screening is highly recommended especially for students taking classes on Kauppi campus and spending time at the hospital area.
If you for some reason cannot get in touch with FSHS, you can also contact the Wellbeing Services County of Pirkanmaa.
With screening, tuberculosis can be detected in time, and its spread can be prevented. Diagnosis of possible tuberculosis does not affect the right to study or stay in the country and you have the right to a free and voluntary chest X-ray. Its purpose is to examine whether your lungs show any changes indicative of tuberculosis. Even if a thorax X-ray was clear in the past, or now, the disease can still flare up later. If symptoms such as a persistent cough, weight loss, lack of appetite, intermittent fever, coughing up blood, etc. appear, medical attention must be sought.
Tuberculosis is no one’s fault. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease. It is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis most often presents in the lungs, where a focus of inflammation is formed. From there, the bacteria can spread all over the body, including the lymph nodes, the intestines, the skin, or the central nervous system. Tuberculosis is spread from one human to another by airborne infection. The bacteria are usually spread through the air when a person with respiratory tuberculosis disease speaks, sings, coughs, or sneezes.