Tuberculosis Case at LGISD
La Grange ISD Superintendent Bill Wagner reported on Monday, April 4, that an individual at La Grange Elementary School has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis (TB). Wagner said the individual is receiving treatment.
Wagner said the school is cooperating with the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) Region 7. He said state officials have determined which students and staff may have been in close contact with the individual. He said affected parents and staff would receive a separate notification from TD-SHS regarding testing.
“TDSHS officials have told us the most important thing to remember is that TB is a disease that is hard to spread to others,” Wagner said in his letter to parents and staff on Monday. “Close, direct, and continuous contact over hours is generally necessary for the transmission of the disease to another person.”
Wagner told the Record on Tuesday that the school would notify the community if any new cases arise. So far, he said, no one else has been diagnosed. He declined to say whether the individual with TB is a student or staff member. Wagner said he does not know how the person caught the disease.
Symptoms of the disease include cough, fever, chills, night sweats, sudden weight loss, or feeling tired and unwell. The disease was more prevalent generations ago, when it was commonly known as “consumption.”
The disease declined dramatically in the United States at the end of the 19th century through a massive public health campaign promoting hygiene and prevention. A vaccine for TB, known as Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), was developed in the 1920s and is administered to millions of children around the world every year. The vaccine has never been used on a mass scale in the United States due to the rarity of TB in this country over the last century.
Fayette County Emergency Management Chief Craig Moreau said his office is monitoring the situation.
“I have not heard of a second case,” Moreau said on Tuesday. “(TDSHS is) screening right now.”
Learn more about TB by visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at www.cdc.gov/tb/ and via the Texas Department of State Health Services site at www.dshs.texas.gov/idcu/disease/tb/.