Students and Staff at Blair High School to be Tested for Tuberculosis; One Student Found to Have TB

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eb/blairtb.pr 01-03

Contact: Esther Bowring, Montgomery County Public Information Office, 240-777-6530
Brian Porter, Montgomery County Public Schools, 301-279-3853

For Immediate Release: January 4, 2001

Students and Staff at Blair High School to be
Tested for Tuberculosis;
One Student Found to Have TB

Montgomery County school and health officials have notified students and staff at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring that screening tests for tuberculosis (TB) will be necessary, following an active case of TB in a student who is no longer contagious.

County health officials are recommending that students and staff who were in classes with the affected student be tested for TB. Students and staff who were not in classes with the affected student do not need to be tested, because TB cannot be contracted through casual exposure.

Health officials will provide free tests at the school on Tuesday, January 9, and Wednesday, January 10 for students and staff who were in close contact with the infected student. Follow-up chest x-rays and any other needed medication and medical follow-up will be provided if needed, at no cost, at the Montgomery County Dennis Avenue Health Center, 2000 Dennis Avenue in Silver Spring.

"A healthy person cannot contract TB by passing an infected individual in a hallway or sitting in a cafeteria with them for an hour," said Dr. Carol Garvey, Montgomery County's health officer. "It usually takes a minimum of several hours of close contact in a small room for TB transmission to occur. The air space is contagious only when the untreated patient is present. After the patient leaves, the TB organisms dissipate to negligible numbers."

TB is an infectious illness caused by slow-growing bacterium spread in the air from person to person. It is much less contagious than flu, cold, or strep.

Active TB in Maryland occurs in about one out of every 16,000 residents per year. New infections are identified by a TB skin test. Usually only two or three people out of all the people who have been exposed to an active case will react to a skin test. Reacting to a skin test shows only that an individual has been exposed to active TB and does not mean that they have TB. A chest x-ray is required to determine whether a person actually has TB.

Most individuals with a positive skin test have a normal chest x-ray and no symptoms. These individuals are not contagious to others. For every active case of TB in the community, there are about 1,000 people who test positive on skin tests but do not have active TB.

A respiratory case of TB is contagious during the several weeks prior to diagnosis. With treatment, cases become non-contagious within a short period of time, and the cure rate is almost 100 percent.

For more information, check the County's website at www.co.mo.md.us/HHS/PHS and click on TB program. Parents of students at Blair High School who have additional questions can call the School Nurse, Ms. Mazine Lofton, at 301-649-2855 between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. or the Nurse Administrator of the TB Control Program, Yvonne Richards, at 240-777-1800 between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Or, call the County's Department of Health and Human Services at 240-777-1394.

Facts About Tuberculosis

· Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious illness caused by slow-growing bacterium that is spread from person to person in the air. It is much less contagious than flu, colds, and strep germs. Because TB bacteria grow slowly, most people who are infected are asymptomatic, with illness developing only months or even years later.

· Only one in ten infected people eventually become ill with active TB. Seventy percent of TB illness occurs in the lungs. TB also occurs in lymph glands, bones and joints. About one-half of cases where the TB is in the lungs are contagious to the public, making only one of every three cases of TB contagious.

· Active tuberculosis in Maryland occurs in about one out of 16,000 residents per year. Usually only two or three people out of all the people who have been exposed to an active case will react to a skin test. This does not mean they have active TB. It simply means the skin test shows they have been exposed to TB. A chest x-ray is required to determine whether someone has TB.

· New infections are identified by a TB skin test. Most individuals with a positive skin test have a normal chest x-ray and no symptoms. These individuals are not contagious to others.

· For every active case of TB in the community, there are about 1,000 people who test positive on skin tests but do not have active TB.

· People with TB infections (positive skin tests) can receive preventive therapy with an antibiotic that reduces the chance of future development of active TB by 95 percent.

· A respiratory case is contagious during the several weeks prior to diagnosis. Once on treatment, people become non-contagious within a short period of time. It usually takes a minimum of several hours of close contact in a small room for TB transmission to occur. The air space is contagious only when the untreated patient is present. After the patient leaves, the organisms dissipate to negligible numbers.

· Face masks have been shown to be effective barriers to transmission of TB when worn by medical attendants in the presence of untreated cases.

· With modern treatment, even if active TB develops in an individual, the cure rate is almost 100 percent.

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