County to Again Test for TB at High School : Health: A La Quinta senior found to have the contagious disease in the spring suffered a relapse. Exams will be conducted Wednesday.

Public health officials said Friday they are ordering yet another round of tuberculosis testing for students and staff at La Quinta High School following the discovery that a senior undergoing treatment for the disease had a relapse and is contagious.

Letters were sent home with 146 students who had closest contact with the infected girl to obtain parental permission to do the tests, Garden Grove Unified School District spokesman Alan Trudell said. Five school staff members also will be tested, he said.

Skin tests are scheduled to be administered Wednesday at the Westminster high school by public health nurses, officials said, and the results will be known Friday. Any students who have positive skin tests will then receive X-rays to help determine if they have active TB.

After a girl in the same grade was found with contagious TB last spring, 225 of her La Quinta classmates were tested, followed in the fall by a screening of the entire 1,332-member student body.

In all, health officials discovered 16 cases of active TB at La Quinta, 12 of which were linked to the initial girl last year. An additional 178 students were found infected with the TB bacteria, although they did not have the active disease.

Public health nurses distribute medications daily at La Quinta to students with active TB and two to three times a week to other students who tested positive for the bacteria to prevent them from getting sick. Penny Weismuller, the county’s manager for disease control, said the newly contagious senior had been under the care of a private physician since she was discovered to have the disease during testing last spring.

In mid-February, the student’s doctor discovered that the girl had a relapse during a routine sputum test, and after the doctor reported the recurrence to the county, she was removed from school, Weismuller said.

The County Health Care Agency came under criticism from the state and the federal Centers for Disease Control for not responding quickly enough to curb the initial TB outbreak at La Quinta, in part because the first infected student did not receive a rigorous and closely monitored treatment program.

County health officials have said that because the student took her medications erratically, she developed a drug-resistant form of the disease, which was passed on to classmates.

County health officials said, by contrast, the girl who recently suffered a relapse had been conscientious about taking her medication, and her treatment had been approved by the county. The chances of a relapse occurring under these conditions is “very rare,” Weismuller said.

“We are very happy with the actions of the private physician and the student has been very responsible, as has been the family,” said Dr. Jody Meador, the county’s interim TB controller.

Meador said she doubted that the girl was contagious long enough to infect her classmates, but that the testing was ordered as a precaution.

Meador said the student was hospitalized Feb. 19 and on Thursday was sent home with additional medications. She will be kept home from school until there is bacterial evidence that she is no longer contagious, Meador said.

As an added precaution, the student will take her medication in the presence of her physician, Weismuller said.