Unusual rate of latent TB prompts more
testing at Longmont High School


Parent meeting scheduled for 6:30
p.m. Monday at the school gymnasium

By Victoria A.F. Camron
Longmont Times-Call

Posted: 02/08/2012 04:23:27 PM MST

LONGMONT -- About 40 percent of Longmont High School students and staff tested for tuberculosis have had positive results, a Denver Public Health official said Wednesday.

Dr. Randall Reves, director of the Denver Metro Tuberculosis Control Program, said that rate is unusual, but not unheard of.

"It just reflects that (the student's) particular case of TB was more
infectious than average," Reves said.

Some types of sputum carry more bacteria than others, making those patients more contagious, he said.

Latent TB, unlike active TB, is not contagious. So far, the original case -
which was made public in early January -- is the only active case found in the school, Reves said.

TB cannot be transmitted unless a patient is actively ill, he said.

"They cough the bacteria into the air," Reves said. "It takes a lot of
bacteria being coughed into the air to cause infection."

Because the rate of latent TB being found at the school has been higher than expected in the first two groups of students and staff tested, Reves has decided to test everyone at the school.

Beginning next week, public health officials will start testing ninth- and
10th-graders. To speed up the testing, skin tests will be given to most people, he said.

The following week, officials will test the 11th- and 12th-graders who have not yet been tested, he said.

Rob Spear, whose child transferred to Longmont High School a week ago, said talking to his family doctor eased his concerns, but thought testing all the students was a good idea.

Some parents, however, are not happy that the entire school population wasn't tested immediately after the first student was diagnosed with active TB.

"Why wasn't it done before?" asked parent Janet Sena, who worries about a 2-year-old grandchild at home. "They made it seem like it was nothing."

Testing all students in January would not have been productive, Reves said, because the body needs time to develop the antibodies needed to react to the tests. The students who were first tested will have to be re-tested later this month; had more students been tested early, more would have to be re-tested, he said.

Usually, when an entire school population is tested, few people are found to be infected, he said.

"You then spend a tremendous amount of resources testing people who are not at risk," Reves said.

Another complication of testing large groups of people is that about half the skin or blood tests show false-positive results, he said. That means more people have to be X-rayed or undergo other tests to see if they have latent TB, he said.

Reyne Messer, who has two children attending Longmont High School, said she feels school district and health officials didn't take the TB threat
seriously.

"TB's not something to laugh about; it's dangerous," Messer said Wednesday afternoon as she waited to pick her children up from school.

She is afraid that even latent TB will spread -- something Reves said is not possible -- and has considered pulling her children out of school, she said.

"To put my kids in danger, it wasn't fair," Messer said.

Longmont Times Call