• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Colma School Students to Be Tested for Tuberculosis

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 February 2006, 09:01 CST

By T.S. Mills-Faraudo, STAFF WRITER

COLMA -- About 120 students at Benjamin Franklin Intermediate School must be tested for tuberculosis after an employee at the school recently contracted it, Jefferson School District Superintendent Barbara Wilson said at a news conference Tuesday.

The San Mateo County Department of Health informed the school district Friday that an unidentified employee at the

school recently had been diagnosed with active tuberculosis, a treatable bacterial disease spread person-to-person through the air.

But parents at the school weren't informed until Tuesday of the case. Each parent received a letter Tuesday afternoon stating whether their child needed to be tested for the disease.

Many parents were upset by the district's handling of the situation.

"If they knew on Friday, I think they should have notified us yesterday (Monday)," said Parent Teacher Student Association President Janet Bronson,

whose daughter and niece are eighth-graders at the school. "Most parents had to find out through the media."

Lisa Gooz, San Mateo County TB medical director, said she determined who needed to be tested by how much time they spent with the infected employee. To become infected, she said, someone would have had to be around the person for more than 40 hours.

"We take this situation very seriously but there is no cause for alarm," said Gooz.

Several parents said all students at the school should be tested. More than 500 are enrolled.

"I don't see any harm in that," said Bronson, who plans to have her daughter and niece tested even though the letter she received says it's not necessary. "It's better to be safe than sorry."

The department of health will be at the school during the next couple of weeks providing skin tests to students and staff who may have been infected.

A person can be infected by TB but may not have symptoms. The infection is not contagious and a patient usually can take one medication over nine months to stop development of the disease, Gooz said. People can carry the infection andnever contract the disease. Someone with active TB is contagious and must take a combination of medications over four months, she said.

Symptoms may include coughing, chills, fever, unexplained weight loss, chest pain, weakness and night sweats.

State law requires that school employees receive a TB test when they are hired and every four years after that, Wilson said.

Gooz said there hasn't been enough TB cases to warrant more frequent testing of school employees.

TB was once the No.1 killer of Americans in the early 1900s, but today is fairly difficult to catch, according to health officials. Only 10 percent of people who get infected with TB actually develop the disease, and only 5 percent develop symptoms within the first two years of infection.

In April 2004, a student at Aragon High School in San Mateo tested positive for TB.

Staff writer T.S. Mills-Faraudo covers education. She can be reached (650)348-4338 or tmills@sanmateocountytimes.com.

Source: Oakland Tribune

More News in this Category