A Beaumont High School student recently tested positive for tuberculosis (TB), the Riverside University Health System – Public Health (RUHS-PH) department announced this week.
“In terms of the public at large, there’s no overall risk to the community based on this scenario that we’re in now,” Barbara Cole, director of Disease Control for RUHS-PH, said. “In general, if you think about TB, it’s the result of ongoing close contact with someone. So for instance, just passing someone in the supermarket or in department stores, that’s not sufficient to expose someone.”
Thomas Guzowski, public information officer for Beaumont Unified School District, said the district first became aware of the situation back in August and immediately contacted RUHS-PH.
“They began their investigation, and that was completed in September,” Guzowski said. “Once they were able to confirm and verify that it was indeed a confirmed TB case, that is when we began working together to notify the public.”
There were an estimated 150 people who might have been exposed between Aug. 8 and Sept. 19, including students, faculty and staff members, who all received notification from the district about the potential exposure.
“There are over 3,000 students that attend the high school,” Guzowski said. “Not every student would be considered exposed, because it has to be a prolonged amount of time to actually qualify as an exposure.”
Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease spread through the air during prolonged, repeated and close contact with someone who has infectious TB, and symptoms can include a persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
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In most cases, people infected with TB have what’s called a latent infection, which means the germs are present but dormant. In a person with a healthy immune system, a latent infection will most likely not progress into active TB, which is confirmed with additional testing, especially with proper treatment.
“There’s effective antibiotics that we treat [people] with anywhere from six to 12 months, depending on what antibiotics they’re on and how extensive their disease is,” Cole said. “It’s treatable, it is preventable, and it is curable with antibiotics.”
According to Cole, the risk of contracting TB from an individual is low, even in classroom settings.
“Overall, the risk in the classroom setting, we consider low,” she said. “But since we can’t say there’s no risk, that is why we notify people and we recommend testing.”
To ensure the health and safety of those who were potentially exposed, Guzowski said the district would be conducting TB testing at the high school for those individuals, though both he and Cole noted that there was no indication at this time that anyone else had contracted the disease.
While it was not immediately known where the student contracted the disease, Guzowski said the student is isolating at home and is expected to make a full recovery.
There were roughly 2,100 tuberculosis cases reported in California last year, according to the California Department of Public Health. In Riverside County, there were 60 cases reported last year.
“TB certainly is a serious condition,” Cole said. “It’s a significant public health concern, but it does not present a great risk to the public at large.”
More information about TB symptoms, testing and treatment can be found here on the RUHS-PH website.
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