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Tuberculosis is a slow-growing bacteria that multiplies in areas of the body with lots of oxygen and blood, like the lungs. But it can spread to other areas of the body.
How is it spread?
It spreads when a patient with active tuberculosis breathes out air that has the bacteria in it, and then another person breathes in the bacteria from the air.
What are the symptoms?
When people are first infected, the symptoms are often so mild they go undetected. But symptoms can include the following:
- A cough that brings up thick, cloudy, and sometimes bloody mucus from the lungs for more than two weeks.
- Fatigue and weight loss.
- Night sweats and a fever.
- A rapid heartbeat.
- Swelling in the neck from infected lymph nodes
- Shortness of breath, and in rare cases, chest pain
Doctors treat active TB with a combination of antibiotics, usually on a six-month regimen. Latent cases are treated with one antibiotic taken over nine months.
For more information:
The Manatee County Health Department and School District officials have planned a Community Forum to be held in the Lakewood Ranch High School auditorium, 5500 Lakewood Ranch Blvd., Bradenton, Florida 34211 from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 20, 2009 to provide information on the topic of tuberculosis.
You can contact the Manatee County Health Department by calling (941) 720-4935 during the weekend and (941) 748-0747 Ex. 1264 during weekdays.
Case of TB reported in Manatee schools
Updated: Friday, 17 Apr 2009, 5:45 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 17 Apr 2009, 8:44 AM EDT
Students and staff at Lakewood Ranch High and Nolan Middle schools will be tested for tuberculosis, after a person with ties to both campuses was diagnosed with the lung disease.
"Everybody's freaking out," said Lakewood Ranch student Cierra Carter.
The school district sent students home Friday with letters explaining the situation, which came to light Thursday when the unidentified victim sought medical treatment and tested positive for tuberculosis.
School district spokeswoman Margi Nanni said federal privacy laws forbid the district from identifying the victim.
"We can't say what role they play," she said. "We can just say it's a member of the family of those two schools."
That frustrated some students.
"They didn't tell us who it was, so we don't know if we've been exposed to it yet," said student Kimberly Toomey.
Manatee Health Department Director Dr. Gladys Branic said investigators are isolating which students could have had contact with the victim. Those students would be alerted by letter next week, she said, no later than Tuesday.
"There's no reason to panic," Dr. Branic said. "What I would say to parents is that tuberculosis is very difficult to acquire and that if it is acquired that it is treatable."
"It is curable," she said. "And it is preventable."
Branic said people who contract tuberculosis do so with prolonged exposure to a carrier, usually six to eight hours daily over a four to six week period. Speakers at a news conference hinted that is unlikely at the school but did not rule it out.
Dr. Branic said this instance is contained, but declined to predict how many students might test positive. She said doing so might reveal the victim's identity and violate the federal health privacy law.
The school district said student testing, if approved by parents, will commence Friday.
First, however, parents will have a chance to ask questions at a forum scheduled for Monday night at Lakewood Ranch High. The meeting should start at 6:00 p.m., Nanni said.
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