University of Delaware monitoring confirmed case of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is rare in this country. The U.S. doesn't vaccinate against the infectious disease
WILMINGTON, Delaware (WPVI) -- A school-wide alert sent out on Wednesday notified University of Delaware students and staff that a member of the community had tested positive for tuberculosis.
Freshman Sebastian Olah received the email.
"It is definitely very useful and the awareness does go up," said Olah.
The university is contact-tracing now and those who may have been exposed to TB will receive additional alerts to come in for testing. Others should not feel the need to test.
Dr. Marci Drees, the chief infection prevention officer and epidemiologist at ChristianaCare, says it takes prolonged exposure to catch tuberculosis.
"Typically you have to have many hours of contact with someone who has active TB to get infected yourself," said Dr. Drees.
Illness can present in different ways.
"Most people that are infected will be "latent" TB, meaning it can be detected by a blood or skin test, but it doesn't cause any illness," said Dr. Drees. "Some people will have a chronic cough that doesn't go away. They may lose weight without trying or have fevers and night sweats."
Because of privacy laws, the University of Delaware has not named the sick individual, or given any information about whether they are a student or staff member.
Tuberculosis is rare in this country. The U.S. doesn't vaccinate against the infectious disease. The vaccine is most useful in infants in countries that have higher community spread.
University of Delaware students say they feel the administration has a handle on the situation.
"They have the person isolated, according to the email, and I trust UD for the most part," said Baze Gianiodis.
The University of Delaware went on to say that the risk of community spread is low, and is hosting an online information session for the campus community on Tuesday.
