Preschool Aide Diagnosed With Contagious TB : Health: County asks parents to allow the 60 children at Cuddle Care Center to be tested for disease that poses worst threat to very young. It is third recent outbreak in schools.

A teacher’s aide at a Fullerton preschool has been diagnosed with a contagious form of tuberculosis requiring the testing of children and staff members at the school, Orange County health officials said Wednesday.

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County officials learned of the infection when the 28-year-old teacher’s aide at the Cuddle Care Center was diagnosed Monday at Martin Luther Hospital in Anaheim. Hospital officials then reported to the county that she had active, contagious tuberculosis, said Orange County Health Officer Hugh Stallworth.

Parents of the 60 children at the school were to be notified by mail Wednesday that their children might have been exposed to TB. The letters from the county also asked permission for public health nurses to administer TB skin tests to the children at school on Monday. In addition, Stallworth said, eight current staff members and two former teachers at the school should be tested.

It is the third time in recent months that TB screenings have been ordered in Orange County schools. County health officials say this demonstrates the increasing threat of the disease, which was once believed to be virtually eradicated in the United States. The two previous alerts were at high schools in La Habra and Garden Grove.

Tuberculosis poses its greatest danger to children under age 5 because their immune systems often are not strong enough to ward off the lung disease. Children at Cuddle Care Center, county officials said, range in age between 15 months and 5 years.

In addition, Stallworth said, young children and the elderly are more likely to contract an active form of TB and can suffer more complications.

“It could hit them harder,” he said.

Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection of the lungs, can be successfully treated with antibiotics.

Roberta Maxwell, the county’s program manager for pulmonary disease services, said operators of Cuddle Care Center told officials the teacher’s aide had tested negative for the disease before she began working at the center last September.

Gail Ritchie, who runs the child care center, declined to comment on the situation, referring all questions to the county.

Under state laws governing the licensing of preschool facilities, preschool staff members must be tested for tuberculosis before employment and all new students must have TB skin tests.

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County health officials said they will hold a meeting at Cuddle Care Center at 7 tonight to counsel parents and staff members about the disease.

Tuberculosis germs are spread through the air when a contagious person sneezes or coughs. The disease typically infects those who have been in close contact over a long period of time with someone who has the disease.

The recent increase in tuberculosis cases in the county, Stallworth said, is associated with an influx of immigrants from regions such as the Far East where there is a high rate of tuberculosis. People infected with HIV or who are malnourished, drug users or alcoholics also are “at risk” for the disease, Stallworth said.

In September, the county tested all 1,034 students and 189 staff members at La Quinta High School in Garden Grove after seven students were found to have active TB infections. Another 189 students tested positive for the bacterium but were in the earliest stage of the disease, when it has done no harm and is not contagious. They were put on medication to prevent their infection from becoming active in the future.

In early January, 225 students and 81 staff members were tested at La Habra High School after a senior girl was hospitalized with contagious tuberculosis. Skin tests found that 35 of her classmates tested positive for the bacterium.

La Habra High students with positive skin tests subsequently received chest X-rays to determine whether they had the active disease. Rick Greenwood, the county’s deputy director of public health, said Wednesday that the X-ray results indicate that one more student may have active tuberculosis.

People who take skin tests and register positive may not have active, contagious cases because their immune systems are holding the disease at bay.

“There are a lot of people who skin test positive who are out there in the community,” Stallworth said. “At what point they will change to an active case, I don’t know, but the potential is there for there to be a serious problem.”

Greenwood said the county will make school skin testing mandatory next fall for all new admissions to public schools and start students who test positive on preventive therapy.

“This approach will prevent TB outbreaks in schools from occurring in the future,” he said.