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Contact: Jill Scoggins, 361-593-2146 (O); 361-244-3006 (C); jill.scoggins@tamuk.edu
Julie Navejar, 361-593-2590 (O); 361-522-2504 (C); kajam03@tamuk.edu

PUBLIC HEALTH DISTRICT, TEXAS A&M-KINGSVILLE CONTINUE
TUBERCULOSIS TESTING THIS WEEK


KINGSVILLE, Texas (5 p.m., May 13, 2008) – Texas A&M University-Kingsville continues to work with the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District to provide free tuberculosis testing for students, faculty and staff this week.

The health district concluded its on-campus service on Monday (May 12) but continues to provide testing supplies to the university. Professional staff from the university’s Health Care Clinic will provide skin testing and read results of skin tests previously administered throughout this week.

Testing is voluntary and is carried out in the Health Care Clinic, located on Retama Street between Avenue B and Corral Avenue. The clinic’s operating hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Testing is provided free of charge through May 16, and all testing information, including results, will remain confidential. Beginning Monday, May 19, the Health Care Clinic will resume its normal rate of $6 per test.

Those who are tested should return to the testing location within 48 to 72 hours to have their tests read. A positive test is not the definitive sign of the disease. Those who show a positive test will need a chest x-ray to further determine if the disease is present.

If a skin test result indicates the need for a chest x-ray, Christus Spohn Hospital-Kingsville will provide those x-rays free of charge, also.

Health District personnel notified the university late in the day May 1 that an individual at the Kingsville campus was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. The university’s policies as well as federal and state laws protecting student, faculty, staff and patient privacy prohibit the university from releasing the person’s name or other identifying information.

The university then identified those on campus who had the closest contact with the individual. On Friday, Monday and Tuesday, May 2, 5 and 6, Health District officials and a university representative met with those identified as having the closest contact with the individual to encourage them to be skin tested for exposure to the disease as a precaution. The total number of people personally notified was about 300.

Skin testing also was made available throughout the week of May 5-9 for any student, faculty or staff member who requested it. Health district personnel provided updated information to the university on Tuesday, May 13, showing that a total of approximately 1,375 students, faculty and staff had been tested.

Anyone with general questions may email the university at health@tamuk.edu or call the dean of students’ office at 361-593-3606. More information on TB may be obtained from the Corpus Christi TB Clinic of the Texas Department of State Health at 361-826-7248 or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention web site at www.cdc.gov/tb.

About tuberculosis

In developed countries, such as the United States, many people think TB is a disease of the past. TB is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. It usually affects the lungs, but it also can affect other parts of the body, such as the brain, kidneys or the spine.

The disease is spread from person to person by germs in tiny microscopic droplets when a TB sufferer coughs, sneezes, speaks, sings or laughs. Only people with active TB can spread the disease to others. People with active TB are treated with four drugs for two months and two drugs seven months. They may never be infectious or they can be infectious for a long period of time beyond two months. The physician will determine when someone is considered no longer infectious.

Early symptoms of active TB can include weight loss, fever, chills, night sweats and loss of appetite. Symptoms may be vague, however, and go unnoticed by the affected person. For some, the disease either goes into remission or becomes chronic and more debilitating with cough, chest pain, daily fatigue, shortness of breath and coughing up of blood.

With appropriate medical treatment, TB can be cured in most people. Successful treatment of TB depends on close cooperation between patient and health care provider. Treatment usually combines several different antibiotic drugs that are given for at least 6 months, sometimes for as long as 12 months.

It is extremely important for people to fully complete treatment. People who do not take all the required medications can become sick again and spread TB to others. Additionally, when people do not take all the prescribed medicines or skip times when they are supposed to take them, the TB bacteria evolve to outwit the TB antibiotics. Soon those medicines no longer work against the disease. If this happens, the person now has drug-resistant TB, which is more difficult to treat.

This page last updated 14 May, 2008