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PR 04/28/04: Active Tuberculosis Case Identified at Local School

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 28, 2004 San Mateo County Health Services Agency Contact: Beverly Thames, (650) 573-3935 ACTIVE TUBERCULOSIS CASE IDENTIFIED AT LOCAL SCHOOL San Mateo, CA--A student at a San Mateo County school has been hospitalized with active tuberculosis (TB). San Mateo County Public Health is working with students, parents, and the school to identify those who may have been in close contact with the individual. The school is in notifying parents. Public Health staff will be on campus over the next several weeks and will give TB skin tests to persons who may have been exposed. TB is caused by a bacteria that infects nearly one-third of the population worldwide. An estimated three million Californians are living with latent TB infection, and an estimated ten percent of them will develop the disease at some point in their lives. This process, called reactivation of latent TB infection, explains why more than eighty percent of the county's cases are among those born outside the U.S. "The populations most at risk for developing TB are the same ones that are growing as a proportion of the total San Mateo County population," said Dr. Scott Morrow, San Mateo County Health Officer. To become infected, a person usually would have to spend a relatively long time in a closed environment where the air was contaminated by a person with untreated TB who was coughing and who had numerous M. tuberculosis organisms (or tubercle bacilli) in secretions from the lungs. TB infection is generally transmitted through the air, and is not spread by dishes, linens, and items that are touched, or by sharing food. TB is also killed by sunshine and is rapidly dispersed by moving air. The number of TB cases in San Mateo County ranges from fifty to ninety each year. In 2003 the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases reported in San Mateo County was fifty-two; however, across the nation, the incidence of TB was on the rise, with the California, New York and Texas noticing the largest increase. Even with this improvement, San Mateo County ranks twelfth highest in reported cases among California's sixty-one health jurisdictions. "Our success at reducing the burden of TB in our communities during the last ten years is directly associated with our capacity to rapidly identify persons we suspect have TB, aggressively treat infectious cases and prevent transmission of disease to their close contacts," Dr. Morrow noted. " Only by sustained commitment to the necessary resources can we continue to ensure that TB is controlled, cured and prevented in San Mateo County." ### For more information on TB, visit these Web sites: Centers for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/faqs/qa.htm  California Tuberculosis Controller's Association http://www.ctca.org/links.htm#Links