Contact tracing is done to find and test family, friends and coworkers to look for the spread of TB germs.

A person with infectious TB disease may spread TB infection to others. The job of public health is not only to help the person with infectious TB disease get better, but also to help others that the person may have infected. This helps stop the spread of TB.

Public health workers talk to the person with TB disease to find out who they spend time with every day. Family members and close friends are the first contacts that public health will talk with and look for TB infection in.

Public health workers spend a lot of time and effort tracking down the contacts of people who have infectious TB disease. Thanks to their efforts, TB is rare in Canada!