5 employees at Brentwood Borough School District test positive for tuberculosis
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Five employees of the Brentwood Borough School District have tested positive for tuberculosis, officials announced over the weekend.
In a letter to district families, Superintendent Amy Burch said the employees are not infectious.
Their illness was discovered as a result of extended testing implemented after a high school student tested positive for active tuberculosis (TB) on Oct. 23.
That student is no longer infectious, Burch said, but the district is working with the health department to identify and test anyone who came in close contact with them.
There will be an information session at 3:30 p.m. today, via Zoom, for staff. Another meeting will be scheduled for district families.
Those impacted have been contacted by district officials, Burch said.
“If your family did not receive a phone call and an email, then your child did not have close contact with the student so to require testing,” Burch said.
“The number of students being tested is out of an abundance of caution with the students’ and their families’ health being foremost in mind.”
Testing will be Nov. 16- 17, with investigations working in a bull’s-eye pattern.
“If a positive test is detected in the center of the bull’s-eye, the investigation moves to the next circle on the target to include those with close contact with the person who had a positive TB test,” Burch said. “The pattern is repeated until no positive TB tests are identified.”
TB is a serious disease but is rare, preventable and treatable with antibiotics.
A person with latent or inactive TB is noninfectious. A person with active TB will become noninfectious within a few days to weeks of effective treatment and will be able to return to normal activities without risk to others while completing treatment.
Burch said that people who believe they might be ill should seek medical attention. Symptoms of TB can include a cough of longer than three weeks, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, chills, fever and coughing up blood. Symptoms for TB do not come and go, they become worse with time.
The Allegheny County Health Department Pulmonary Center is open for TB tests and to answer any questions about the disease.
For more information, call 412-578-8162.