Stomach TB Symptoms

In 2008, approximately 5,283 U.S.-born people in the United States contracted tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease. While many people associate TB with infections of the lungs, it is possible for TB to develop anywhere in your body, including your stomach.

Causes

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the bacterium that causes gastrointestinal or stomach TB. These bacteria spread through the air when infected people cough, sneeze, spit, laugh or sing, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Time Frame

• Stomach TB symptoms sometimes develop within days after your exposure to the bacteria. In other cases, the tuberculosis bacteria lie dormant in your system, causing stomach TB symptoms months or even years after initial exposure.

Types of Symptoms

• Possible symptoms of stomach TB include abdominal pain, fever, bouts of diarrhea followed by bouts of constipation, weight loss, loss of appetite and malaise.

Features

• The pain caused by stomach TB has the potential to be sharp and sudden or a dull, persistent ache. Stomach pain is by far the most common stomach TB symptom, occurring in 80 to 90 percent of patients, according to an October 2004 article by M.P. Sharma and Vikram Bhatia at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

Risks

• Only 1 percent of all tuberculosis cases that affect the abdomen rather than the lungs are stomach TB, according to Sharma and Bhatia. Those most at risk for developing this rare infection are patients with HIV and other diseases that affect the immune system, residents of long-term care facilities, homeless people and those incarcerated in prisons, according to 2003 study conducted at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif.