Ventura County Health following 2 Active TB Cases

 TB Exposure Update

[Ventura County, Calif.] — Ventura County Public Health has been following two related cases of active tuberculosis (TB) since June, and has investigated the two settings where possible exposures may have occurred. One of these cases is associated with Rio Vista Middle School in Oxnard. The other subject visited 24 Hour Fitness at the Collection in Oxnard on a number of occasions.

To date, 142 students at the middle school have been re-tested. Eight of them were found to have positive tests. There are an additional 108 students that still need to be re-tested from the initial group of identified students. Public Health has decided that due to the number of positive tests, all children attending Rio Vista Middle School during the last term of 2017-18 school year will need to be tested. “We want to be certain that we identify all children who may have developed a positive tuberculosis test so that we can give them preventive therapy,” said Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County Public Health Officer. Of the staff members at the middles school who were tested, one has a positive TB test.

At 24 Hour Fitness, TB tests have been performed on 46 employees and five are positive. Of the 30 gym members who have been tested, two have been positive. There are 210 identified members of the gym that still need to be tested, some of which may have been tested by their personal physicians, but Public Health doesn’t have knowledge of that.

Tuberculosis infection is very common throughout most of the world. It is relatively uncommon to acquire TB in the United States. The State Tuberculosis Control Branch estimates that 16% of foreign- born people in the United States will have a positive blood test for tuberculosis.

Ventura County Public Health will hold a community meeting for students and parents at Rio Vista Middle School, 3050 Thames River Drive, Oxnard, at 6:00 p.m., Thursday, August 23^rd, in the cafeteria.

There is a difference between TB infection and TB disease. People with TB disease are sick from the germs that are active in their body and they may cough a lot, feel weak, have a fever, lose weight, cough up blood, or sweat a lot at night. People with TB disease are capable of giving the infection to others.

People with TB infection (without disease) have the TB germ in their body, but they are not sick because the germ is inactive. They cannot spread the germ to others. About one out of ten people with TB infection become sick with TB disease at some time in their life. TB can be treated and cured.

Get Citizensjournal.us Headlines free  SUBSCRIPTION. Keep us publishing – DONATE