70 Tulsa school students and staff will be tested Thursday for tuberculosis

Here's the latest on a tuberculosis case at a Tulsa elementary school. A student at Emerson Elementary School tested positive for tuberculosis. <br/><br/>Now, the Tulsa City-County Health Department

Tuesday, May 18th 2004, 4:58 pm

By: News On 6

Here's the latest on a tuberculosis case at a Tulsa elementary school. A student at Emerson Elementary School tested positive for tuberculosis.

Now, the Tulsa City-County Health Department will test dozens of students and teachers to make sure the disease didn't spread. News on 6 anchor Scott Thompson says the Tulsa School District has to take this case of tuberculosis very seriously.

The student who tested positive is out of school and on medication. And 70 students and teachers will be tested for the disease Thursday afternoon. The tests are a precaution and more cases of tuberculosis are not expected to surface.

TB is a respiratory disease that's spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The school's principal, Jane Barnes, has tried to educate her students about the disease. "We talk about tuberculosis, and how it has a nickname, and we talk about 3 different words, safety, contagious, and we talk about a cure and what that means."

Barnes says there have been a lot of questions from students and parents, but otherwise it's been business as usual at Emerson Elementary School. Now if someone tests positive for TB, health officials say tuberculosis is curable and is treated with a 9 to 12 month regiment of antibiotics.

The health department says children aren't usually contagious.