HEALTH - UK: Another school TB outbreak

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ET ISSUE 2157 Saturday 21 April 2001 All pupils screened after TB confirmed

A MASS screening of 1,100 pupils was planned at a school in south Wales last night after eight cases of tuberculosis were confirmed.

The outbreak at Duffryn High School, Newport, among pupils aged between 14 and 15, was the second at a school in Britain in a month. Fifty cases have also been confirmed at a school in Leicester.

In a third case, more than 1,000 former patients are to be tested for tuberculosis in Gloucestershire after a nurse at Cheltenham General Hospital contracted the disease.

Welsh health officials hoped the cases at Duffryn school would prove to be just a small cluster. David Snashall, the headmaster, said the disease was initially diagnosed in one pupil in Year 10 at the end of March. The whole year was then screened and seven other pupils were found to have contracted the disease. Mr Snashall said: "The school will remain open as normal. Chances of cross infection are extremely low."

Dr Dyfed Huws, of Gwent Health Authority, said that no links with the outbreak at the school in Leicester had been found. Dr Eddie Coyle, director of public health at Gwent, said infections between children were unusual. He assured parents that the illness could be effectively treated with antibiotics.

The screening programme at the school, where one in five pupils is from an ethnic minority, was to be extended as a precautionary measure. Dr Coyle said: "Letters have been sent to parents of all pupils at the school offering screening and giving advice and information about this condition." The Gwent trust is resuming a comprehensive programme of vaccination to protect against TB at all secondary schools in the area from September.

In Gloucestershire, patients who were in contact with the hospital health care worker over the last year are to be offered tests to see if they have picked up the infection. The nurse was on sick leave and the screening was described as "precautionary". Doctors were trying to establish the strain, which the nurse may have picked up on holiday in Sri Lanka.

There are 50 cases detected with connections to Crown Hills Community College in the Evington area of Leicester and 40 pupils have shown early signs of TB. It is believed to be the worst outbreak in Britain for 20 years.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001


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