WESTMINSTER : Free TB Screening Offered to Children

Free tuberculosis screenings will be offered next week by the Garden Grove Unified School District to ease the minds of the parents whose children attend schools that send graduates to La Quinta High School, which has suffered a major TB outbreak.

Alan Trudell, spokesman for the school district, said that this week 4,800 flyers with information about the screening are being sent home with students at Sarah McGarvin Intermediate School in Westminster, James Irvine Intermediate School in Garden Grove, Ethan B. Allen Elementary School in Fountain Valley and Susan B. Anthony, Leo Carrillo, John Marshall, and Post elementary schools in Westminster and Thomas Paine Elementary School in Garden Grove.

Trudell said skin tests, which will be given Monday between 2:30 and 7 p.m. at James Irvine Intermediate School, are voluntary and not part of the mandatory testing being conducted by the Orange County Health Care Agency in response to the La Quinta situation.

Dr. Hugh Stallworth, the county public health officer, said there is no reason to believe that there are any undiagnosed cases of tuberculosis among younger siblings of La Quinta students.

Trudell said while the screening is intended for schoolchildren and faculty, anyone from any part of Orange County may take advantage it.

Monday’s skin tests will be followed by skin readings Wednesday, again from 2:30 to 7 p.m. at James Irvine Intermediate School. All those who had the screenings should return for a skin reading, which reveals exposure to TB. Those who test positive, he said, will be referred to private physicians or the county for chest X-rays and sputum tests to detect active disease.