UK: TB outbreak hits 30 schoolgirls

[Shiloh]

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/7375598.stm

last updated at 13:31 GMT, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 14:31 UK

TB outbreak hits 30 schoolgirls
Birchfield Independent Girls School
Thirty pupils have tested positive at the school

An outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) at a Birmingham school is being investigated, the BBC has learned.

Pupils at Birchfield Independent School for Girls were tested after a pupil and one of their relatives were diagnosed with the disease.

Health officials said 30 pupils at the school, which teaches an Islamic curriculum, had tested positive for TB. The school, in Beacon Hill, Aston, confirmed the outbreak but has refused to comment further.

A pupil contracted TB last summer and was successfully treated, but another family member later became ill.

Monthly injections

The decision to test pupils at the school was taken in February.

Dr Andrew Rouse, a consultant in public health, said there was no need for the public to be alarmed.

He said the patients were being treated at the Birmingham Chest Clinic and the Birmingham Children's Hospital.

The girls at the school who have the disease will undergo a series of monthly injections to fight the disease.

Birchfield provides education for girls aged between 11 and 16.

 

[Thornton]

Re: UK: TB outbreak hits 30 schoolgirls

The girls at the school who have the disease will undergo a series of monthly injections to fight the disease.

The reporter might be confused or things are done very different in UK from USA.

In USA, for people who test positive on a TB skin test (infection), they are prophylactically treated daily with a pill (isoniazid) to prevent the development of the disease TB.

As a physician responsbile for TB screening and prevention I am unaware of any monthly shots. Maybe the children are being skin tested each month for a few months to ensure they were not infected. Skin testing consists of injecting (shots) purified protein derivative (PPD) into the skin (subcutaneous) which prompts an immune response if the person has been infected with TB.
JT

 

[Shiloh]

Re: UK: TB outbreak hits 30 schoolgirls

Source: http://itn.co.uk/news/a00e857c5d8d154b6235b6dafc809c81.html

Five girls develop lung disease
Updated 15.55 Thu May 01 2008

Five more girls have developed the deadly lung disease tuberculosis at a school in Birmingham.

One pupil at Birchfield Independent School for Girls in Aston, was diagnosed last summer and two more students were struck down in February.

It has emerged that five more pupils at the school have contracted the disease, raising the total to eight.

A further 13 pupils are taking antibiotics to prevent them developing the disease.

Another nine pupils are awaiting chest X-rays after tests indicated they had been exposed to the disease and could have been infected.

All 165 pupils at the school, which teaches an Islamic curriculum, were tested for the disease after three Year 11 pupils were found to have developed the active, infectious type of the disease in their lungs.

None of the 30 girls have attended school since the skin tests returned positive results.

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