eb/tbresults.pr 01-28

Contact: Marilyn Piety, 240-777-1394
Mary Anderson, 240-777-6530

For Immediate Release: January 19, 2001

Testing Shows No New Active Cases of TB at
Montgomery Blair High School

Results of tuberculosis (TB) tests conducted at Montgomery Blair High School last week showed no new active cases of the disease in students or staff as a result of contact with a contagious student diagnosed in December with active TB.

Eighty-one students and ten teachers who had close contact with the affected student received skin tests for TB on January 9 and 10. Of those tested, five students had positive reactions to the test, indicating that they had been exposed to TB at some point in their lives. Follow-up chest x-rays were normal for all five students and indicated no symptoms of active TB.

People with positive TB skin tests are considered to have latent TB, which may or may not ever develop into active TB. There is no evidence that the five students with latent TB received their exposure to the disease at Blair High School. Health officials say it is possible that the students were exposed to TB while in other countries where TB is endemic.

As a precaution, the five students will be offered preventive antibiotic therapy at no cost, which is the usual course of treatment for students with latent TB. There are no symptoms associated with latent TB, it is not contagious, and there is a very small chance that latent TB will ever develop into active TB.

"TB is a preventable and curable disease," said Montgomery County Health Officer Dr. Carol Garvey. "Its symptoms are a cough lasting for more than three weeks in combination with other symptoms such as fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, coughing up blood, chest pain and extreme malaise."

For additional information about TB, call the TB Control Program at 240-777-1800.

No New Active Cases Found
Results of TB Outbreak Surveillance
at Montgomery Blair High School

No new active cases of TB were found in students or staff as a result of contact with the Montgomery Blair High School student who was diagnosed with a contagious case of active tuberculosis in late 2000.

However, of the 91 contacts (81 students and 10 teachers who had regular classroom contact with the affected student), five students, who had positive reactions to skin tests, were evaluated for tuberculosis symptoms and given follow-up chest x-rays. These five students had normal chest x-rays and no symptoms of active TB.

It should be emphasized that a positive reaction to a skin test does not mean that a person has active TB. It only means he or she has been exposed to TB at some time in his or her life. In fact, there is no evidence that the previous exposure for the five students even occurred at Blair. Because latent TB is asymptomatic, it is difficult to know when someone was actually exposed and became infected. Latent TB is not contagious, does not affect the person adversely and may never develop into active TB.

However, because there is a small possibility that it will develop into active TB at some future time, it is considered medically prudent to treat latent, or inactive, TB with preventive medication. This kills the TB infection and prevents the development of active TB.

All five Blair students who had positive skin tests have been offered preventive therapy at no cost to them.

TB Control authorities stress that TB is a preventable and curable disease. Its symptoms are a cough lasting for more than three weeks in combination with other symptoms such as fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss, coughing up blood, chest pain and extreme malaise. TB should be considered when other medical treatment is not effective or does not cure respiratory ailments.

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