A female Fresno State student was recently diagnosed with active tuberculosis, Fresno County health officials announced Thursday.
David Luchini, the assistant director of the county’s department of public health, says the female student was diagnosed about a week to ten days ago. Luchini says the student was infectious.
"Now we're working very closely with the Fresno State medical staff to identify students who we consider close contacts to the student who has tuberculosis, to get these contacts screened with a TB skin test," he says.
County officials say there is a reason why it took about a week or more for the news to be announced.
"There's a process," Luchini says. "We work very closely to make sure we've conducted all the test needed to make sure we do have an accurate diagnosis of active TB. We also needed to get results on how infectious the person is, and then we work with Fresno State to start planning how we want to identify close contacts to get them screened."
Health officials have sent out notifications to possible close contacts including five instructors, 133 students, family and close friends. Officials say the students and professors remain in school.
"This is not a type of organism that easily transmits," Luchini says.
"Unless we see something that we feel there was a lot of transmission to the first circle of close contact we then usually don’t expand from there. Based on the number of people we’re screening we usually feel really confident that we don’t need to expand further testing but that’s what we’ll review after the first round of screenings."
Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacteria that spreads through the air from person to person. Symptoms vary but include fever, chills, pain in the chest, fatigue, bad cough lasting several weeks, coughing up blood, and weight loss.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says if not treated well, TB disease can be fatal.
TB can remain latent for years. This means that individuals will test positive for the disease but aren't symptomatic. According to the CDC, individuals with a latent TB infection can’t spread the disease to others. But those who develop TB of the throat or lungs can spread the disease to others through coughing, speaking, or sneezing.
In an email notification sent out to students Thursday morning, university health officials say they’re working with the Fresno County Department of Public Health to "protect the health and safety of all students, faculty and staff."
