The county’s Tuberculosis Control Program is working to notify students, staff and volunteers at Mount Miguel High School who were potentially exposed to tuberculosis earlier this year.
The exposure at the school, 8585 Blossom Lane in Spring Valley, took place from Feb. 1 to June 4.
County and Grossmont Union High School District officials will coordinate TB testing, and X-rays when appropriate, as necessary.
TB is an airborne disease transmitted from person-to-person through inhalation of the bacteria from the air. The bacteria are spread when someone sick with TB coughs, speaks, sings or breathes.
People with frequent and prolonged indoor exposure to a person who is sick with TB should be tested.
Symptoms include persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss, though most people who become infected do not get sick right away. This is called latent TB infection. Some who are infected will become ill in the future, sometimes even years later if their latent TB infection is not treated.
Taking medicines for latent TB infection can cure it and keep these people from ever getting active TB disease.
According to public health officials, there were 192 TB cases in the county in 2020, 201 in 2021 and 208 people in 2022.
An estimated 175,000 people in San Diego County have a latent TB infection and are at risk for developing active TB without preventive treatment, health officials said. People who test positive for TB, but who do not have symptoms of active TB, should get a chest X-ray and talk to a medical provider.
Anyone who would like more information should call the county TB Control Program at 619-692-5565.
– City News Service
