Which among the following is not a common symptom of tuberculosis?

RML PRE 2025

Medical Surgical Nursing

Easy

Appeared in: RML PRE 2025

Explanation

Weight gain is incorrect because tuberculosis is characterized by significant, unintentional weight loss.
This weight loss is a 'constitutional symptom' resulting from a combination of increased metabolic rate due to the chronic infection and loss of appetite (anorexia).
Historically, TB was called 'consumption' precisely because of the way it seemed to consume the patient's body, leading to wasting and emaciation.

Option A: A persistent cough lasting three weeks or longer is a hallmark symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis, often being the first sign that prompts a person to seek medical care.
Option B: A low-grade fever, which characteristically worsens in the evening or at night, accompanied by drenching night sweats, is a classic systemic symptom of an active TB infection.
Option D: Loss of appetite, or anorexia, is a very common constitutional symptom of tuberculosis that directly contributes to the characteristic weight loss associated with the disease.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: Knowing Clinical manifestations of Tuberculosis (TB) helps nurses interpret findings accurately and avoid errors in routine assessment, medication administration, and patient teaching.
Early recognition of TB symptoms (persistent cough, fever, weight loss, night sweats) is critical for prompt diagnosis, initiation of airborne isolation precautions, and starting treatment to prevent transmission.
Nurses play a key role in screening at-risk populations, educating patients about the importance of completing the full course of antibiotic therapy (DOTS), and managing nutritional support to counteract weight loss.
What if? If a patient presents with these symptoms and is also HIV-positive, the nurse should have a much higher index of suspicion for TB, as immunocompromised individuals are at a significantly higher risk of developing active disease, which can be more severe and disseminate to extrapulmonary sites.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the core subject of the question, which is the common symptoms of tuberculosis.
Next, notice the negative framing: the question asks which option is 'not' a symptom.
Your task is to evaluate each option to see if it's a known symptom of TB. Three options will be correct symptoms, and one will be incorrect.
Recall or look up the classic signs of TB: persistent cough, fever/night sweats, and weight loss.
Option A (Cough > 3 weeks) is a classic symptom. Option B (Fever at night) is a classic symptom. Option D (Loss of appetite) is a classic symptom that leads to weight loss.
Option C (Weight gain) is the direct opposite of the known symptom of weight loss. Therefore, this is the correct answer as it is not a symptom of TB.

Concept Tested & Keywords

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