More Than 200 Students, Staff to Be Tested for TB

officials expect 220 to 240 students and staff members will receive free tuberculosis skin tests tomorrow after learning a seventh-grade student was diagnosed with the disease.

The district and the Shorewood/Whitefish Bay Health Department that a seventh-grade student was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. In response, the health department will give free TB skin tests Wednesday, and all seventh-graders are urged to be tested.

Out of the 640 students at the school, roughly one-third will be tested, Superintendent Mary Gavigan said.

“Parent permission slips have been coming in all day, and we are projecting in all likelihood we will have 220 to 240 students and staff tested,” she said.

One parent who signed the permission slip for the skin test was Milly Rivera, who said she was worried about her eighth-grade daughter being infected.

“Tuberculosis is nothing to mess around with,” she said. “You don’t want your child to have something that will affect them for the rest of their life.”

Rivera said she has talked to other parents who share her concern about the spread of the disease.

Another parent, Elsa Diaz-Bautista, said she felt confident sending her sixth-grade daughter to school Tuesday and was not as concerned.

“I think they have it under control,” she said. “They were very good about letting us know, too.”

Gavigan said the alerted the district Monday about the need to create a response plan. Middle school parents were notified of the TB case Monday morning.

“We have been very pleased with the support of parents and the assistance from the health department,” Gavigan said.

In Wisconsin, about 70 new cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed each year, according to a health department news release. The most common symptoms are chronic cough, fever, sweats and weight loss.

Tuberculosis can be cured with a proper regimen of medicine, and contacts who are at risk of developing the disease may also receive medicine to decrease their risk of getting the disease.

For more information about tuberculosis and questions about potential exposure, contact your own health care provider, the Shorewood/Whitefish Bay Health Department at (414) 847-2710 or the state TB Program at (608) 261-6319.

Further information on tuberculosis may be found at http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/tb/ and http://www.cdc.gov/tb/.