Tuberculosis Case Detected At Hazen High School In Renton

RENTON, WA - Health officials say that a member of the Hazen High School community has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, and that the county health department is working with the Renton School District to screen about 240 people connected to the school for the disease.

The person infected with tuberculosis is in treatment, King County Public Health said, and is not presently a public health risk. The health department will conduct a screening at the school on Jan. 18, including blood tests, to look for others who may be showing symptoms.

Health officials are reassuring the school community that exposure is likely limited.

"TB is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that are passed from person to person through the air. TB is not easily spread; it’s much harder to spread than the cold or flu. It takes repeated and prolonged exposure in a confined indoor space to become infected with TB. Even in households with a contagious TB case, only about 1-in-3 close household contacts become infected," the department wrote in a blog post about the case.

The health department said that the person infected at Hazen may have a strain of tuberculosis that's resistant to antibiotics. Most cases can be treated with a six to ninth month course of antibiotics.

Health officials say about two cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed in King County each week. To learn more about the disease, visit King County Public Health's tuberculosis page.

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