Orange High Student’s TB Prompts Tests for 300

Health officials will test about 300 students and staff at Orange High School after a senior was found to have low-level, communicable tuberculosis, health and school officials said Friday.

The student, who apparently caught the disease from an uncle who visited the family home frequently, has mildly contagious tuberculosis. Still, the incident requires testing people with whom the student had contact.

The youth has no symptoms--no cough and no extensive X-ray evidence of the disease, said Penny Weismuller, the Orange County Health Care Agency’s manager of disease control.

“He had . . . the lowest [saliva infection level] you can have and still be counted as having communicable disease,” she said.

Orange High School officials said they sent letters to the homes of all 2,143 students to inform families of the situation. They also sent letters to about 300 families with children who shared a class or worked in the school office with the 17-year-old senior.

Testing for the disease will begin Jan. 25, school district spokeswoman Judy Frutig said. “We will test these students and anyone else who is concerned,” she said.

The initial exam involves a skin test, followed by a chest X-ray for those who test positive and a saliva culture for those with active tuberculosis.

Orange County had 309 reported tuberculosis cases in 1997 and 298 last year. In each instance, Weismuller’s office conducts “a contact investigation,” which can include testing, to determine if the disease has been transmitted to anyone.

Officials cautioned that the follow-up and testing is routine and not a cause for alarm.

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Health Care Agency officials were informed of the case involving the uncle, an Arizona resident, when he was treated at a clinic in Orange County and subsequently hospitalized. He had a well-developed case of tuberculosis, officials said.

Nevertheless, they were surprised when all six members of the family initially tested positive because officials did not believe there had been sufficient exposure to the uncle.

Further investigation revealed, however, that the uncle had been visiting the family and staying with them in Orange for extended periods beginning about nine months ago, Weismuller said.

“The potential for transmission was optimal,” she said.

Health officials emphasized that tuberculosis, a bacterial disease, can be treated and cured with antibiotics, even the most resistant strains.

While the disease was once frequently fatal, “deaths today are rare” in the developed world, Weismuller said.

TB symptoms include a prolonged cough--three to four weeks--fever, night sweats, malaise and weight loss.

County health and school officials will hold a public meeting to answer questions at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the school, 525 N. Shaffer St.