Riverside County health officials last week reported that a student at Indio High School had tested positive for tuberculosis (TB) with efforts underway to identify anyone who might have been exposed to the disease.
“Our team is working closely with the school to identify anyone who may have had close contact with the student and ensure they receive appropriate testing and follow-up care,” Dr. Jennifer Chevinsky, Riverside County Public Health Officer, said in a release announcing the case. “Given the rise in tuberculosis cases we’ve seen in our county, this is an important reminder that TB disease is both preventable and treatable.”
Health officials said the student was receiving treatment and was expected to make a full recovery, though it was unknown how the student contracted the disease.
“There’s no ongoing risk on the school campus, because the individual is in isolation, or in the community,” Barbara Cole, RUHS-PH Disease Control director, said. “People with active TB are placed in isolation until they’re no longer infectious, and there’s tests we do to demonstrate they’re no longer infectious.”
Health officials said exposure notification letters were sent to students’ guardians, faculty and staff members who might have had ongoing contact with the student between April and the end of May this year, though Cole said there were no other known cases connected to the student as of Friday.
“The [large] window for potential exposure is because you’re looking at ongoing exposure, not a one time encounter,” she said. “And it can take anywhere from two to 10 weeks after someone’s been exposed to have the test show up positive.”
Testing will be offered for those who might have been exposed. Those who test positive will then be sent for a chest X-ray and follow-up with the Riverside University Health System – Public Health (RUHS-PH) department. If the chest X-ray shows no disease in the lungs, health officials recommend treatment for latent TB to prevent progression to active TB.
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“Someone can be exposed and not even become infected,” Cole said. “Some people get exposed, become infected, but if their chest X-ray is normal, then there’s no indication that they have TB in their lungs, and they’re not contagious to others.”
Those who were not considered at-risk were notified by the district and RUHS-PH of the potential exposure and informed that no further action was necessary on their part.
“Desert Sands Unified School District is committed to the health and safety of our students and staff,” Tamara Wadkins, Public Information Officer for DSUSD, said in the county release. “We appreciate the work of public health officials as they guide our response and provide support to our school community. Counseling services are available to assist any student or staff member who may feel unsettled during this time.”
TB is a disease caused by a bacteria spread through the air during prolonged, repeated and close contact with someone who has infectious TB disease. Most people infected with TB will have a latent infection in which there are no symptoms, the person is not contagious and their illness will likely not progress to active TB, especially with appropriate treatment. For those with active TB, symptoms can include a persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
“If they’re having respiratory symptoms — cough, fever, unexplained weight loss — they should contact their healthcare provider to be evaluated, because it could be something else,” Cole said. “Influenza can cause some of those symptoms, Covid can cause those symptoms as well as other respiratory viruses.”
In Riverside County, there were 98 active TB cases reported last year, an increase of 55% from 2023 when there were 63 cases reported. So far this year, Cole said there was a provisional count of 34.
“We’re seeing more individuals who are hospitalized and therefore getting tested,” she said, noting that some of this delay could be related to the height of the pandemic. “If we go back to the height of Covid, we feel like some cases could have been missed…and so I think some of it is just delayed diagnosis of people now seeking care and showing up positive for tuberculosis.”
More information can be found here on the RUHS-PH Disease Control website.
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