25 students to be screened for TB

At least 25 people will have to be screened after a Rotorua student was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB).

Western Heights High School families have been sent a letter home telling them a Year 12 student at the school had been diagnosed with respiratory tuberculosis.

The Daily Post reported today the letter said the risk of infection to other students at the school was low.

Lakes and Bay of Plenty District Health Board public health physician Neil de Wet, said investigations were under way into how the student contracted the disease.

He said although it was unlikely any other student had caught the disease, he was working with the school to find out who had close contact with the student. About 25 others would be screened.

Dr de Wet said the case was one of about four in Rotorua being looked into by health officials at the moment.

None of the four were linked and none of the victims had travelled overseas.

Last year hundreds of people were tracked down and tested for a rare and aggressive form of tuberculosis after the disease was undetected for weeks in a highly contagious patient in Auckland City Hospital.

The female patient at the centre of the scare was initially diagnosed as having a respiratory illness. She died after a stay of many weeks in the hospital.

In late September Auckland District Health Board confirmed her illness was actually an extremely rare, aggressive and contagious form of TB, which was not diagnosed until tests were done after her death.

Her case was so rare none of the appropriate TB screenings indicated she could have the disease.

That meant that throughout the patient's stay at the hospital she was treated as any other non-contagious patient would be.

- NZPA