A Southwestern College student diagnosed with active tuberculosis last spring prompted the college to offer free testing to his classmates and teachers exposed to the potentially-fatal disease.
No new cases have been reported from those exposed, according to county health officials, though testing continues.
SWC PIO Lillian Leopold said school and county health officials met last month to discuss protocol for notifying those exposed. College employees called faculty who had the infected student in their classes, and sent letters and emails to exposed students. County of San Diego health officials identified the exposure period as March 8- May 27.
“We have been informed that you may have been in contact with an individual at Southwestern College who has tuberculosis,” read the letter. “TB is a serious disease that is spread through the air from person to person… Because you may have been exposed to TB, we recommend that you receive a TB test.”
Five SWC classes were exposed. A total of 132 notices were sent out, said Leopold.
Lorena Gonzalez-Fabiny, a supervising communicable disease investigator for the County of San Diego, said about a quarter of the students identified as exposed had submitted their test results by the end of August.
Gonzalez-Fabiny is part of a small team of investigators who cover tuberculosis cases across the county. Claudia Souza-Luna is a colleague.
“We are six employee investigators with the whole San Diego County, from the border to Fallbrook,” she said.
Gonzalez-Fabiny said the team handles hundreds of cases annually, though they have seen fewer in the recent years.
“We are seeing a little decrease from our highest peak when we were in the 400s a couple of years ago,” she said. “But 230 or 240 (cases) is still a pretty challenging number for us.”
Souza-Luna said despite the case load, investigators work hard to ensure that people treated for tuberculosis are looked after.
“Everybody that’s been diagnosed with tuberculosis, it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re going to have a public health nurse, an investigator, which is like us,” she said. “So you have a team of people that want to make sure that you’re fine.”
Gonzalez-Fabiny said that the county makes sure everyone known to be exposed to TB is tested. Were a student to refuse, the county would notify SWC officials.
“We continue working with the individuals until they get tested,” she said. “We’d try to give them the proper education to see why is it that they’re refusing and a lot of the time it’s just a lack of understanding.”
Students who were exposed and have not been tested will be urged by SWC and county health officials to submit. Testing was not mandatory for those exposed students to return this semester, Leopold said, but that might change next semester.
“There is some discussion that if they were on that (exposure) list and are here this semester and they haven’t been tested after the second notice goes out that there could be a hold put on their record,” said Leopold. “So they wouldn’t be able to register for new classes.”
Because it has been more than eight weeks since the exposure period, any student who tests negative for tuberculosis is considered to be cleared and would not require any further testing, according to Gonzalez-Fabiny.
County officials strongly recommend that those exposed students get tested and advise residents to be aware of tuberculosis symptoms such as lingering cough, sudden weight loss, night sweats and fever. Individuals seeking more information or testing should contact the county health department or the school’s nurse’s office.
