A person at South Gwinnett High School has tested positive for tuberculosis, school officials announced this week.
In a letter sent to school parents Wednesday, South Gwinnett Principal Rodney D. Jordan said he and his staff learned about the diagnosis from the county health department, but he did not specify if the person infected was a faculty member or student.
TB is a bacterial disease that mostly attacks the lungs, according to the Mayo Clinic. The bacteria is spread between people through tiny droplets released by sneezes or coughs.
In response to the diagnosis, the health department identified people who have been in “close and continuous contact with the ill individual,” Jordan said. Officials with the county’s health department said about 150 people would be tested for the disease free of charge.
Jordan’s letter highlighted two important facts shared by health officials about TB.
First, the disease is difficult to spread and requires close, continuous contact with an infected person over a period of several hours. Second, TB can only be spread by those who are ill themselves, and the bacteria can take a long time to cause an infection and lead to symptoms. to develop.
The general rule is that only about one in 10 people who come into contact with TB will develop the disease, Jordan said. Still, TB is considered the world’s deadliest infectious disease and, according to Jordan’s letter, cases are required to be reported to the county health department.
TB disease was the reported underlying cause of death for 565 deaths (0.2 per 100,000 persons) in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year for which federal TB deaths data is available. Cases in Georgia tend to cluster around metro Atlanta, with cases reported at schools every few years.
Earlier this fall, about 300 students and staff at Walton High School in Cobb County were tested for TB, Channel 2 Action News reported. The most recent case in Gwinnett reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was in 2019, when Discovery High School announced a student had been diagnosed with TB.
Anyone determined to need testing in the South Gwinnett case will receive a separate letter, Jordan said.
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