El Campo ISD Testing Students For Tuberculosis

EL CAMPO, TX -- Students at El Campo High School will be tested for tuberculosis after district officials learned that a student may have contracted the bacterial disease.

Officials in El Campo ISD sent letters home to parents on Friday informing parents that the health department would be investigating , as well as screening students for possible exposure on Thursday and Friday.

Tuberculosis, or TB, is an airborne bacterial infection in the lungs that is typically spread through coughing, and can become a disease if left untreated.

Some of symptoms of TB include:

• Fever
• Chills
• Lethargy
• Night Sweats
• Coughing
• Chest Pain
• Loss of Appetite
• Unexplained weight loss

While it was once considered a death sentence, TB is treatable.

The Texas Department of Health does not have the TB vaccination as a requirement with other vaccinations for admittance to school, but children often have been vaccinated against the disease by the time they are in high school.

Testing for TB is conducted through either a blood test or skin test, and is a painless procedure.

Although students are not being forced to be tested, the district is offering the test for those students who’d like to be tested.

Image/Shutterstock

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