[HiTech RedNeck]

The patient tends to feel better after just a couple weeks of treatment (and is also no longer infectious after that period),

So how do the uber-germies get out if the patient in fact is no longer infectious...?

[RedWhitetAndBlue]

That's the thing...after a few weeks of adhering to treatment, the germs no longer come out. TB germs are spread when someone with TB disease coughs, laughs, sings (there's a least one study describing the spread of TB in a church choir in NJ). Enough force has to be used to actually aerosolize the germs into the air--talking isn't enough to do it. So after a few weeks taking treatment, cough typically subsides and the patient no longer spreads the germs.