San Joaquin County Public Health Services has confirmed that a student at Tokay High School has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB). The student is currently under medical care and there is no longer a risk of exposure to students and staff at school. “Public Health Services is working closely with school officials to proactively investigate and test students who may have been exposed,” Dr Julie Vaishampayan, Assistant Public Health Officer, said.
Informative letters have been sent to the parents of all students. Currently, Public Health Services staff will only be testing students and school staff who shared a classroom with the diagnosed student. Public Health has scheduled a time to provide screening tests at school to identified students and staff to detect inactive (latent) TB infection.
TB is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and is transmitted through the air. Droplets containing the bacteria can become airborne when a person with TB disease coughs, talks, or sings. These droplets are inhaled by other people and infection usually requires significant (many hours), not casual, contact when the person is infectious.
Some of the people who inhale these droplets will become infected, and some of those infected will develop active TB disease if they don’t receive treatment to prevent it. Typically, transmission of TB bacteria is limited to family members, close friends, and people with sustained close contact. The majority of people who have been infected with TB do not progress to having active TB disease and are, therefore, unable to transmit the germ to others. They can protect themselves and the people around them if they complete treatment for TB infection because it effectively prevents them from developing infectious active TB disease.
For information on tuberculosis, contact the Public Health Services Tuberculosis and Communicable Disease Control Program at 209-468-3822, weekdays 8am -5pm. Online information on TB is available at the following websites:
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), www.cdc.gov/tb/ California Department of Public Health (CDPH), www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/tb