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Local and Community News Brooklyn, NY: Tests Find Student Exposure to TB After Teacher Falls IllNovember 11, 2002 A teacher at Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic elementary school in Brooklyn contracted TB and may have infected a student, the citys Health Department said. Forty-four other students at the school tested positive for exposure to the disease but did not have active cases, the department added. The 44 children who tested positive were being treated with preventive antibiotics and have only a 1 percent chance of developing active TB, said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the health commissioner. Frieden added that the only person who has a contagious form of the disease is the teacher, who has not been in the school since June. Therefore, he said, no additional people were infected between August and October. The Rev. William A. Smith, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, said that the Health Department notified the school in mid-September that the teacher had TB but asked the school not to publicize it. We didnt like that, he said. We werent totally pleased with the idea, but thats the protocol of the Health Department. The late-October round of testing was announced to parents in a letter earlier in the month, Frieden said. And on Thursday, the department held a meeting for parents in the school. Many parents were not satisfied with the answers they got, and about 20 parents came to the school Friday morning to demand answers, Smith said. Back to other CDC news for November 11, 2002 New York Times 11.09.2002; Andy Newman This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a part of the publication CDC HIV/Hepatitis/STD/TB Prevention News Update. |
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