GARDEN GROVE : 17 Students Test Positive for TB Exposure

Seventeen students at a local high school have tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis, health officials said Friday, and have had chest X-rays to determine if any of them have active cases of the disease.

Students and teachers at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove were given skin tests on Tuesday after a classmate was found to have active tuberculosis, said Dr. Penny Weismuller, manager for disease control at the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Of the 82 people tested, 17 students returned positive results. They were given X-rays Thursday to determine whether their lungs have been affected.

Health officials emphasized that does not mean they have active cases of the disease. People who have ever been exposed to or infected with the TB bacteria will show positive test results for the rest of their lives, Weismuller said.

“This is really what you’d expect in that population,” Weismuller said. “You’re not seeing anything out of the ordinary.”

TB in its active state attacks the lungs, causes weight loss and coughing, and if untreated can be fatal. But 90% of those exposed to the bacteria never contract the disease, Weismuller said, and those who do can be treated with medication and typically are cured within six months.

The infected student, whose name was not released, was taken out of school after administrators were notified of the case, Weismuller said.

A list of students and teachers who had contact with the student was compiled within three weeks, and they were the ones tested.

The 17 who tested positive will be given medication for six months to reduce the likelihood of developing an active case of the disease.

“It’s not a disease to fear,” Weismuller said. “We have effective treatment.”

At Irvine Valley College, where another active TB case was reported, students Friday were still undergoing skin tests. Those results, along with X-ray results from Bolsa Grande, will be available next week, Weismuller said.

In 1993, an outbreak of TB at La Quinta High in Westminster struck 17 students after a physician failed to notify officials that his patient, a student at the school, had a drug-resistant strain of the disease.