Korean Job Discussion Forums

[J-A]

Many years ago, I tested positive for tuberculosis without ever getting sick from it. I took the course of medication as prescribed so that I would never get sick and never spread it. But I was told I will always test positive for TB for the rest of my life. Does anyone know if this will this be an issue when I go to get an E2? Maybe if I just provide a letter from my doctor here in the US?

[TheMeerkatLover]

It's a requirement that you be TB free.

Testing positive will be a deal-breaker.

[J-A]

Thanks for responding. I was afraid of that. What's weird is that I got an offer from a school after they asked about it on the application and I was honest. I let them know about it and they moved forward anyway. Does that just mean they don't know what they're doing? Can anyone else confirm that it's a deal-breaker before I go and throw out a major life plan based on a forum comment? Thanks!

[northway]

I actually think the previous response is incorrect. Testing positive for TB without being symptomatic implies that you had the skin test done and it came back positive (the skin test is the standard in most of the West). Korea has a large population of people who pop positive on the skin test but are not symptomatic, and as such they use an x-ray to determine if you have TB. If you aren't symptomatic, nothing pops on the x-ray, so you should be good.

[denverdeath]

SCARY thing about TB in korea is the latency thing. MANY of those old troopers coughing all over you in the subway mayve just given you TB. Be careful! Yeah. Get checked regularly. We had a scare at our school not long ago. Those who were possibly connected needed an x-ray and bloodwork done.

[Coltronator]

Latent TB is non contagious. It needs to be active to spread.

[denverdeath]

Ok. Wrong choice of word(even though latency does NOT equal latent). TB IS a BIG issue in the RoK still.

http://www.pkids.org/diseases/tb/treatment_for_latent_infection.html

Just be careful of older 1s coughing phlegm all over you on public transportation.

[J-A]

Update: So the contract at that particular school was rescinded due to their fears about TB, even though I very clearly explained that there is no way for me to transmit, and even though they were the ones who originally insisted it wouldn't be an issue with the visa (they knew about it before they offered the job!). I've been calling around trying to get an answer about whether I would be able to get a visa if I were to continue to look for other jobs. The recruiter referred me to the immigration office in Seoul, who referred me to the embassy here in the states (SF), who referred me to the EPIK program, who was very confused about why the embassy would refer me to them. No one has a definitive answer. Most of them said I should just give it a shot and see what happens, but I don't really feel like spending all that money and maybe even showing up in Korea before being told it isn't going to work. Northway's comment seems reasonable, but I just don't know. So yeah, I don't think I'll be going to South Korea.

denverdeath: if your advice was to me, the point is that I already had it (latent) and already had it treated just like how it's described in your link. I won't be getting it from old coughing people's phlegm. Coltronator is right that latent TB is not contagious. I'm unsure of what your distinction between latent and latency is.

In short: I'm super frustrated. I'm going to continue to try to get a definitive answer, but I'm not holding out much hope of making it to Korea at this point.

[denverdeath]

[northway]

[J-A]

[J-A]

[northway]