NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 22, 2001

State health officials said 158 children have tested negative, and about 100 more haven't received the results of their tests yet. All of the children will also be getting chest X-rays to look for signs of the bacteria.

If the children who tested positive for latent infection take their medication faithfully for nine months, there's little chance they will develop active TB, health officials said. Without treatment, 5 percent to 10 percent could face the painful and contagious disease within a few years.

"We're very aggressive in [treating] children because we don't want to see a TB case in a child,'' who can become more severely ill from it than an adult, said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, director of communicable diseases at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The episode has sparked concern and anger among parents – some of whom may not fully understand that exposure probably poses little risk to their children, DeMaria said.

"One of the things we didn't get across was that this is a preventable, treatable and curable infection,'' said DeMaria. "We can't do anything about the exposure – that's done. But the kids are doing all the right things'' that are recommended in the wake of exposure, he added.

Children who test positive based on recent exposure will show no signs of sickness and are not contagious to family members or anyone else, DeMaria said, and the drug – an antibiotic called isoniazid – is considered very effective in preventing latent infections from becoming active.

According to the Merck Manual, treatment with isoniazid "has been shown to be 98.5 percent effective in preventing development of clinical TB.''

The teacher who exposed the children to TB had been diagnosed with pneumonia last November, and continued to work at the low-income early education program until she was hospitalized on Jan. 2. A week later, a chest X-ray showed she had active TB disease and was contagious.

TB, caused by a bacterium, can infect any organ of the body, but most often infects the lungs. The disease is spread through the air by coughing, but it doesn't usually spread to others unless they're in close contact with a sick person for prolonged or repeated periods.

Friday, attendance at the Head Start program was off slightly, but not dramatically given the time of year, said Peggy Shepard, a spokesperson for Community Teamwork Inc., the agency that runs the Head Start preschool program.

Children identified as having been in contact with the teacher – an estimated 262 in all – are being prescribed an eight-week course of antibiotics. Those who post two negative skin tests, at the beginning and the end of that period, can stop taking the drugs.

According to Shepard, the children "have been tremendous'' under what could be frightening circumstances. Most seem to know what to expect and aren't showing signs of fear, she said.

A DPH spokeswoman said there would be no further updates on the number of children testing positive until results come back for the entire group next week.

TB FACTS