Ventura County | Tuberculosis (TB) Exposure Alert
[Ventura County, Calif.] — Ventura County Public Health has been following two cases of active tuberculosis (TB), and have investigated settings where possible exposures may have occurred over the last several months. One of these cases is associated with Rio Vista Middle School in Oxnard. The other case visited 24 Hour Fitness at the Collection in Oxnard on a number of occasions.
To date, 235 students and staff were tested at the Middle School. One of them had a positive blood test for tuberculosis. One hundred seventeen members and staff were tested at 24 Hour Fitness and four of them had positive blood tests for tuberculosis. While it is likely that the individual at the Middle School represents local transmission from one of the TB cases, three out of the four people who tested positive at 24 Hour Fitness were foreign-born and therefore likely to have acquired their TB infection earlier in their lives before they came to this country.
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.
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.
Overall, these results indicate that very little transmission of tuberculosis infection was associated with these two cases of TB disease. The individuals selected for testing at both sites were those that had the closest contact with the contagious cases and were therefore most likely to be the ones who might become infected.
The next round of testing of these individuals will take place about eight weeks after the first tests were performed. This re-testing is necessary as it can take up to three months since the last contact with an infectious individual for a person who was infected to develop a positive test.
The Public Health Department continues to work closely with Rio Vista Middle School and 24 Hour Fitness and commends both for their cooperation.
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Well, at least they fessed up to the fact that in many cases, diseases like tuberculosis come from outside of The Continental United States.
Another reason to not have open borders.
Before my wife could get a visa to come to the United States she had to test negative for TB. In the 1950s every immigrant to the U.S. had to test negative for TB plus a long list of other diseases.
Obviously, those who illegally cross the border bypass being screened for communicable diseases.
As a former employee of the second largest school district in the Nation, no child is allowed into class without a health screening. Wether that also applies to other school districts might be a question that parent citizens might want to enquire of their local School Board President.