Tuberculosis Test Finds School Safe

After conducting extensive skin testing and some physical exams, Orange County health officials are convinced that no one at Orange High School contracted tuberculosis from a teenager who was diagnosed with the disease this month.

“There is no outbreak of tuberculosis and no spread at the school,” said Penny Weismuller, manager of disease control for the county Health Care Agency.

Skin testing of nearly 400 students and staff--completed this week--turned up 39 people who tested positive, indicating exposure at some time in their lives to tuberculosis, she said Thursday. But none of those has symptoms, and because the first student had a low-level infection, officials believe the disease was caught before it could spread.

Tuberculosis, which is caused by bacteria, is treatable with antibiotics. While the disease was once frequently fatal, deaths today are rare in the developed world.

All 39 of those who tested positive will receive chest X-rays next week. If they show signs of the disease, they will undergo further testing to determine if they have active and contagious tuberculosis.

Those cases would be treated with a six-month regimen of tuberculosis drugs and antibiotics, Weismuller said.

The student, who is “doing fine” and recovering at home, is expected to return to school shortly, Weismuller said. He was removed from school “from the moment he was diagnosed,” said Orange Unified District spokeswoman Judy Frutig.

Health officials said the low level of positive skin tests, about 10% of those tested, was another indication that the disease had not spread.

The rate of positive results at the school is about half that of the general population, Weismuller said. “The results were lower than we anticipated,” she said.

In addition, the percentage of positive skin tests was almost the same among those who had contact with the student as those who shared no classes with him, officials said.

Tuberculosis is typically transmitted through continued close contact with a person with active and contagious disease, officials said.

The county has about 300 cases of active tuberculosis reported annually. In every instance, the health agency does an investigation to track exposure, tests to identify who may have contracted the disease and then creates a drug wall to contain the outbreak.

The boy had contracted the disease from an uncle who lived in Arizona.