BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CENTRAL FALLS -- A second case of active tuberculosis (TB) has been found at Central Falls High School, following an incidence that had been reported in January, according to the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH).

However, HEALTH and school district officials say the new case is no cause for alarm, and that the student who contracted it has been treated and is now safely back in school. However, HEALTH and federal CDC (Centers for Disease Control) officials have recommended that all students and staff be tested again during the first week of June.
“This is not a particularly (alarming) situation,” said Schools Superintendent Frances Gallo. “There have been very few calls. All of the appropriate steps have been taken.”
Gallo said a letter had been sent out to parents on Thursday, the same day HEALTH announced the new TB case. She indicated that the school district intended to cooperate fully with the health department on the matter.
Dr. Robert Crausman, director of HEALTH’s Center For Epidemiology and Infectious Disease, said the new case was discovered while analyzing data collected after the previous case of TB at the school. He said 288 students had been tested, along with 74 faculty and staff members. Of those, 17 skin tests came back positive in individuals who had previously tested negative, including 16 students and one employee.
“TB is a very slow-growing organism,” Crausman said. “The overwhelming majority with a positive skin test have latent TB. But a small number of them may develop active TB.”
HEALTH official David R. Gifford said in a statement that it was “not surprising that our testing identified another case in a student with close and frequent contact with the first student.” He indicated that HEALTH would seek to test the entire school population when the next tests are done, to make sure  no one contracted TB since the initial tests and to follow up tests conducted in late March.
HEALTH indicated that testing earlier than June would not be necessary or even helpful, and could in fact lead to false negative results given the time it can take TB to develop.
Crausman said Rhode Island sees an average of roughly 50 TB cases a year, which he said was consistent with the national average of five cases per 100,000 people. He added that while TB, caused by a bacteria known as mycobacterium tuberculosis, was a common type of infection, people who traveled internationally had a greater risk of being exposed to it. According to information provided by HEALTH, symptoms of TB can include “unexpected weight loss, night sweats, weakness or fatigue, loss of appetite, persistent coughing (more than three weeks and sometimes with blood) or shortness of breath.”
Gallo confirmed that the student who had the second reported case of active TB was back in school, having undergone treatment before returning. Crausman said treatment for TB typically involved a few days of taking antibiotics, the most common of which were isoniazid and risampin. He said the fact that an active case of TB had been found in the school should not alarm the public.
“I think the public needs to know that this is standard (practice),” he said. “This is work our Department of Health is doing all the time. We think the school is safe, and there’s not a need to take any special precautions. I would feel safe sending my child there.”
The Department of Health has made further information on tuberculosis available online, in both English and Spanish. It can be found at: www.health.ri.gov/disease/communicable/tb/index.php