Tuberculosis Symptoms

The symptoms of tuberculosis are the signs of active TB disease, and in the lungs they start with a lasting cough. Lung TB causes a bad cough of 3 weeks or longer, chest pain, and coughing up blood or sputum. Signs that affect the whole body can join them¹.

• Feeling weak or worn out
• Losing weight
• A poor appetite
• Chills
• Fever
• Sweating at night

CDC clinical guidance from 2024 adds shortness of breath to the lung signs². It puts a general sense of illness or low energy on the whole-body list².

Symptoms alone cannot confirm TB, so a test is the way to know. The guide on how to know if you have tuberculosis walks through those tests.

The first sign of tuberculosis on the CDC list from 2025 is a bad cough lasting three weeks or longer. A cough that long, with or without blood, is a reason to ask about a TB test. Chest pain and coughing up sputum from deep in the lungs are the other lung signs¹. Doctors call coughing up blood hemoptysis². How a tuberculosis cough sounds and how long it lasts has its own page.

Tuberculosis symptoms usually start slowly and stay mild at first, CDC guidance from 2024 says. People often blame an early cough on allergies, or low energy on everyday stress. A sudden start is rare and may be linked to a weak immune system². Symptoms can linger for weeks or months before a person seeks care². WHO noted in 2026 that mild symptoms may last many months, letting TB pass to others unnoticed⁶. The page on active TB disease symptoms describes the illness in full.

No, not by themselves, though night sweats, fever and chills are among the whole-body symptoms of active tuberculosis. Paired with a lasting cough or weight loss, they call for a health care visit. CDC guidance from 2025 places weight loss, loss of appetite and fatigue in the same group¹. NHS guidance from 2026 adds losing weight without trying and feeling generally unwell⁷. What tuberculosis night sweats feel like is covered on a separate page.

TB outside the lungs causes symptoms in the part of the body it reaches. CDC guidance from 2025 pairs each site it names with its own sign.

The whole-body symptoms can come with any of them¹. WHO in 2026 named the kidneys, brain, spine and skin as sites besides the lungs⁶. The page on TB outside the lungs covers each site.

Tuberculosis in the throat mostly affects the voice box, and its main symptom is hoarseness. Throat TB spreads to other people, just as lung TB does⁴. In a review of 60 cases of TB of the larynx, 96.6% of patients had hoarseness⁸. Of them, 28 people, or 46.7%, had active lung TB at the same time⁸. The page on laryngeal tuberculosis covers this contagious form in more depth.

Skin tuberculosis is uncommon, often grows slowly and looks like a more common skin problem. Doctors group it into forms that hold many germs and forms that hold few. About one-third of skin TB comes with TB somewhere else in the body (Kaul, 2023). Once TB spreads past the lungs, NHS guidance from 2026 lists a rash on the legs, face or elsewhere⁷. Each of the skin tuberculosis types is described on its own page.

Spinal tuberculosis mainly causes back pain, and TB in other bones causes a swollen, painful joint. CDC guidance from 2024 lists both as clues to TB outside the lungs. NHS guidance from 2026 lists body aches and swollen joints or ankles once TB spreads beyond the lungs⁷. The page on spinal tuberculosis symptoms looks at the spine in detail.

Abdominal tuberculosis in the gut most often strikes where the small and large bowel meet, causing belly pain or a lump. A 2016 review found the abdomen involved in 11% of people with TB outside the lungs. The lump is usually felt low on the right side of the belly⁹. TB of the colon can cause lower belly pain and blood in the stool⁹. NHS guidance from 2026 lists tummy or pelvic pain, constipation and vomiting⁷. A chest X-ray shows lung TB in fewer than 25% of these cases⁹. More on tuberculosis of the stomach and bowel is on its own page.

Tuberculosis in the brain, called TB meningitis, shows up as headache or confusion. A stiff neck with a severe headache, a seizure or weakness in part of the body needs emergency care. NHS guidance from 2026 sends people with these signs, or a change in behavior, straight to emergency care⁷. The same guidance lists vomiting and feeling confused or irritable among signs of TB beyond the lungs⁷. The page on brain tuberculosis explains TB meningitis in full.

No, the CDC symptom list from 2025 is the same for women and men. Women and men with lung TB have the same cough, fever, night sweats and weight loss. TB of the reproductive and urinary organs causes symptoms of its own, covered under genitourinary tuberculosis. In its 2026 fact sheet, WHO counted 5.8 million men and 3.7 million women who fell ill in 2024⁶. It counted 1.2 million children that year too⁶.

No, inactive tuberculosis causes no symptoms, because the germs are not growing. People with inactive TB do not feel sick and cannot spread it. Without treatment, 1 in 10 of them later get sick with active TB³. When a medical check finds no TB disease, the diagnosis is inactive TB³. It usually comes with a positive test and a normal chest X-ray³. Many pages still call it latent TB, and latent vs active tuberculosis explains how the two differ.

These short answers cover silent disease, timing, pneumonia and when to get help.