Thread: Hawaii: 3rd TB case in Farrington school, many immigrants

HON News
Farrington is 3rd School With Active TB Case
By Gina Mangieri
For the third time in less than 6 months, the state Health Department will conduct mass testing of high school students exposed to tuberculosis -- this time at Farrington High School.
A student who was hospitalized with active tuberculosis is no longer at the campus, but more than 100 students and staff at Farrington who had come in contact with the patient will be tested.
The timeline of the state's third high school tuberculosis case in six months began in January, when a Farrington High School student was hospitalized with a disease that tested negative for TB at the time. But confirmatory results that take weeks came back positive in late March.
"At that time we knew the student did have active TB and was contagious at one point," said Janice Okubo, spokesperson for the state Department of Health.
The state Health Department notified the school in April, and began mapping out who could have been infected.
"They do look not only at the student that is in that class, but they also look at the friendship groups, and making sure that anyone that had regular contact is checked,â€

Farrington has a large immigrant student population, but the Health Department cautions against stereotyping.

'Stereotyping'........we are speaking of a deadly disease. We need to identify those who have TB.

TB testing should be mandatory prior to issuing visas and citizenship.