Sept. 08--The Wilkes-Barre City Health Department has confirmed a positive case of tuberculosis contracted by a student who attended GAR and E.L. Meyers High School last year, according to a city news release.
The Health Department and the district have identified "a small population of students, generally those students in the same classroom, who were possibly exposed at GAR and Meyers," according to the release. The district has sent letters to parents and guardians of those students who will need to be tested for tuberculosis, though the city stressed that is "only a precautionary measure to confirm the limited number of potential TB cases."
Wilkes-Barre Health Department Director Ted Kross said there have been no other confirmed cases of tuberculosis in the city and that it is difficult to spread tuberculosis in school environments. He left parents with a message of "don't panic."
"To acquire tuberculosis, it's exposure for a prolonged period of time," Kross said. "We're talking not just hours. We're talking days, weeks in the same environment to the same person. It's easier to get the flu or the common cold than to get tuberculosis from another person."
The airborne bacterial disease spreads through coughing when droplets are transmitted from one person to another, Kross said. Symptoms include coughing, night sweats, a fever up to 103 degrees, weight loss and fatigue, he said. It is treated with antibiotics.
"But be assured that it's somewhat common across the United States and across the world," Kross said. "It's easily treatable, it's easily diagnosed. As part of our response as a public health department, we do this investigation to prevent the spread of it."
The student fell ill in late winter or early spring last year, but was only diagnosed with tuberculosis in August, Kross said. The Health Department does not know how the student was exposed to the disease, Kross said.
No identifiable details about the student were released. The student is being treated and is expected to recover.
About 8 million new cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed each year, with 22,000 of those in the United States, Kross said. The disease spreads more now as people from third-world countries that lack the diagnostic and treatment options of more developed nations travel or move across the world, Kross said.
That latest reports from the state Department of Health's indicate there were 276 reported cases of tuberculosis in Pennsylvania in 2007. Of those cases, 53 percent were found in people born outside of the United States. Fourteen cases were reported in the Northeast part of the state, according to the report.
There are almost 2 million tuberculosis-related deaths worldwide each year, according to the state Department of Health.
astaub@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2052
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