None of 19 Students Exposed to TB Have Disease

None of the 19 Sierra Intermediate School students found to have been exposed to tuberculosis have the disease, health officials announced Thursday.

“Many people who . . . have positive reactions to the TB skin test . . . never acquire the disease,” Dr. Hugh Stallworth, county health officer, said of the students who recently tested positive for tuberculosis antibodies.

They were among 146 youngsters tested after a classmate, a 12-year-old girl, became ill with tuberculosis. To prevent the disease’s spread, school and health officials administered skin tests to the sick girl’s classmates and friends, as well as any other students or staff members who asked to be tested.

Chest X-rays were then performed on the 19 students whose skin tests were positive, officials said, but none of the students were found to have the disease.

“Because of the brief duration of the student’s illness, we did not strongly anticipate that she had passed it along,” Stallworth said in a press release, “but it was appropriate that we move forward with the investigation as a precautionary measure.”