Some Discovery High students, staff must undergo second tuberculosis test - Gwinnettdailypost.com

No new cases of tuberculosis among Discovery High School students and staff have been reported, but the school’s principal told parents this week that some members of the school community will have to undergo a second test just to be sure.

Principal Marci Sledge said students and staff who were screened for TB during the initial round of testing in March are being required by local health officials to be screened for the disease for a second time. These were the first people to be tested for the disease after the Gwinnett County Health Department notified school officials that a student had diagnosed with TB.

“These are the people who were initially identified as having close and continuous contact with the student who was diagnosed as having active TB,” Sledge said in the letter.

Information outlining how the second round of testing was not included in Sledge’s letter to parents, but Gwinnett County Public Schools spokeswoman Sloan Roach said the tests are to be completed by July 12 by either the Gwinnett County Health Department’s Preventive Health Clinic or by a student or staff member’s primary care physician.

Roach said 205 people fall within the group that must undergo a second screening for TB. The additional testing is required under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for TB screening.

Sledge told parents in her letter that details on the additional testing will be distributed in follow-up communications with the school community.

The principal also said students and staff who were tested in April do not have to undergo a second test because the results from that batch of screenings did not show evidence that further testing was needed. However, parents of students screened in that group can have their children screened again for free as a precaution by contacting the Gwinnett County Preventive Health Clinic at 678-442-6880, according to the principal.

“Again, no additional active TB cases have been identified among the students and staff at our school. I know this is welcome news to us all,” Sledge said. “I hope you and your families have a good summer break and we look forward to seeing you when school begins in August.”



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