Tuberculosis - Anyone have experience with this?

[agarand8]

Hello All.

My husband was diagnosed with tuberculosis upon going for our CIC medical.
The doctor advised us that we can still make the application we will just have to redo the medical once the TB is cleared and send that as an "update"
I have read on CICs website that they require that the applicant is clear of TB for a minimum of 6 months before they will be granted entry into Canada.

What I am wondering is....do I go ahead and redo these medicals as I know they have to be redone, or do I wait for them to request new medicals?
Normally in giving advice on this board, I myself have told people not to do anything until CIC requests that it be done, but I am nervous to take my own advice here when I can look at other Mexico VO timelines and see people landing within 8 and sometimes 6 months. If I wait for them to request, will they wait until the original medical expires to request a new one? The medical wasn't sent to CIC until Feb 2014 so you can see my hesitation in wanting to wait that long.

He has finished his 6 month long regimen of pills 2 weeks ago now and has been given the spewtum tests by the public health system in his country. Assumming that this test comes back completely negative, should he be heading to the capital to have his medical redone now?

Is there anyone on here who has experience with them finding TB or a similarly contagious disease? And what have your experiences been?

I am interested to know what people think in this case.

 

[Avadava]

Did he receive any instructions from CIC after he discovered his condition? (after the up-front medical exam)

Does the panel physician where he did the up-front medical exam have any idea on how to proceed? (they can access the data base and see if CIC instructed them how to proceed after completion of the treatment.)

I don't have TB, but I was suspected of TB after my up-front medical exam. I received a letter from CIC within 10 days of doing my medical (I hadn't even filed my application), asking me to go back to the panel physician for further tests. At the doctor, he opened my file and read to me the specific instructions that CIC have sent for me:
1. Sputum culture from 3 different days
2. A second xray to be taken 3 months after my initial one. (they even specified the date on which the xray is to be taken)

After I did all that, the panel physician forwarded to results to CIC. Everything was negative and according to my GCMs notes, I have passed my medical exam.

So basically, after the first letter from CIC, they didn't send anything else to me. The panel physician coordinated everything (getting the sputum done, the xray and forwarding the results to CIC). Maybe it's worth a shot to try and call the doctor's office.

Or you could write an email to CIC Health Branch in your region (every continent has one - they are the ones assessing the medical exam) informing them of the completion of the treatment and asking them for further instructions.

 

[agarand8]

We did not receive any letter. This is how everything went...

September 2013 - We go to physician for inital tests, physician says something abnormal is found on the chest xray and sends us to a private specialist.
Specialist gives antibiotics hoping it's just an infection. 2 weeks later we return for a repeat chest xray that is still the same. Get sent for a CT scan with contrast. This didn't rule anything out. Specialist refers us to his son-in-law who is the head of the lung department at the public hospital (aka not in private healthcare system anymore).
Hospital gives us 4 tests, lung function, spewtum, bloodwork, and broncoscopy. November 2013 -They diagnosed TB with spewtum test and confirmed it with the broncoscopy. We were referred to our local public clinic for treatment.

I phone back and forth with the original CIC physician to get instructions on how to proceed. He looks up for what is required and instructs me to bring him copies of every test that was not done by him and letters describing the treatment that is being provided in extreme detail. We comply and he has everything in February 2014 and tells me that he will submit the medical report with a note that we will send an updated medical at the time that the treatment for TB has been completed.

Treatment was completed May 7th. He has not called us and as per my experiences with him he probably will not do so. It was pulling teeth to get ahold of him to find out what he needed from us to send in the medical results.

If they have sent us a letter, the most likely have sent it to our residencial mailing address and most likely it will have never arrived because in the rural area that we live no mail is delivered to peoples houses, you only receive mail if you have a P.O. Box in the neighbouring town.

 

[Avadava]

We did not receive any letter. This is how everything went...

September 2013 - We go to physician for inital tests, physician says something abnormal is found on the chest xray and sends us to a private specialist.
Specialist gives antibiotics hoping it's just an infection. 2 weeks later we return for a repeat chest xray that is still the same. Get sent for a CT scan with contrast. This didn't rule anything out. Specialist refers us to his son-in-law who is the head of the lung department at the public hospital (aka not in private healthcare system anymore).
Hospital gives us 4 tests, lung function, spewtum, bloodwork, and broncoscopy. November 2013 -They diagnosed TB with spewtum test and confirmed it with the broncoscopy. We were referred to our local public clinic for treatment.

I phone back and forth with the original CIC physician to get instructions on how to proceed. He looks up for what is required and instructs me to bring him copies of every test that was not done by him and letters describing the treatment that is being provided in extreme detail. We comply and he has everything in February 2014 and tells me that he will submit the medical report with a note that we will send an updated medical at the time that the treatment for TB has been completed.

Treatment was completed May 7th. He has not called us and as per my experiences with him he probably will not do so. It was pulling teeth to get ahold of him to find out what he needed from us to send in the medical results.

If they have sent us a letter, the most likely have sent it to our residencial mailing address and most likely it will have never arrived because in the rural area that we live no mail is delivered to peoples houses, you only receive mail if you have a P.O. Box in the neighbouring town.

Here's what I would do if I were you. Since the panel physician forwarded all those documents to CIC, then this means CIC is aware of your husband's condition. He also submitted a note saying that you will send an updated medical after completion of treatment. This means that CIC is expecting this updated medical, so I don't think they will contact you. They've been informed by the panel physician that you will do a re-med after the treatment, so in my opinion that's what they're waiting for.

I would suggest to start with doing a sputum test. CIC will definitely want that, to make sure TB is not active anymore (a negative sputum test will confirm it). They will also want to see another chest xray, to compare it with the previous ones. Do all those tests and take them to your panel physician, so he can forward the results to CIC.
If CIC requires anything else, they will request it.
I would also order GCMS notes about 2 weeks after sending the new test results. You can find out there if the medical is passed.


Also, I would do something about that mail problem you have there. You should ensure that you receive any and all letters from CIC. They will of course send them to your mailing address specified in the forms. Not only for the medical problem, but PPR/COPR arrive with regular mail, so you don't want to take any risks for those two important documents to not get delivered to you.

 

[agarand8]

Thanks. They have given him 2 spewtum tests through the public health system and we have asked for copies of the results so that he doesn't have to do that again, and so then yes we will need another chest X-ray to confirm that it is gone.

The mail is not a problem. We have a PO Box but the doctor didn't specify for us to give him our mailing address or residential. We just made an assumption. I didn't think there would be a reason he would need to mail us something. CIC has been given both the mailing address and the residential address. I'm sure they will send the papers to the correct one. Also they have told me in the Mexico thread that the Mexico vo send PPR through email not regular mail. So it will only be getting the passport back where we should get anything in regular mail.

I appreciate your advice. Thank you.