PUBLIC HEALTH specialists with the Health Service Executive (HSE) have decided to rescreen children for tuberculosis at a Cork primary school after an increase in the number of pupils who were found with a latent form of the disease.
The move follows the discovery of an extra 11 cases of the latent form of TB among pupils at Ballintemple National School at Crab Lane, bringing the total number of pupils at the school who have tested positive for the latent form of the disease to 31.
In addition, three members of staff have also tested positive, while the number of cases of active or full-blown pulmonary disease among pupils at the school has risen from five to six.
On Tuesday, the HSE South consultant in public health, Dr Margaret O’Sullivan, wrote to all parents of the 220 or so pupils attending the school to advise them of the latest findings, which came to light in a first round of screening carried out by HSE doctors.
“This outbreak has revealed an extraordinarily high attack rate in terms of the numbers of active TB cases and latent TB infection in the school,” Dr O’Sullivan wrote in an update.
“It is an extremely unusual event in the scientific literature in terms of potential source exposure, lack of confirmation of definitive infectious sources and the degree of spread which has been recorded,” she added in the letter.
Dr O’Sullivan said that as a result of the failure to definitively identify the source and the rate of spread of the disease, it had been decided to carry out a second screening to rule out the possibility of any late conversions of those who tested negative in the first screening.
The BCG vaccination, which protects against tuberculosis, was only reintroduced in Cork in 2008 following a lapse of 36 years.
It is also to be offered to all unvaccinated children who tested negative for the disease when they have completed the second screening.
Last night, the HSE issued a statement in which it confirmed that no outbreak for the source had been definitively determined.
The HSE also confirmed that the particular strain of the TB has not yet been identified by a microbiology laboratory.
“It is reiterated as before, that the outbreak control team is satisfied that there is no ongoing risk with regard to returning to school.
“The paediatricians stress that the children with active TB are on treatment and are not currently infectious. Latent TB is not an infectious condition and children or adults with latent TB are not infectious.
“We again emphasise that other children, or staff, or close contacts are not at risk from contact with either the cases of active TB or latent TB,” the HSE statement added.
Earlier this month, Dr O’Sullivan said that the first case of TB was notified to the HSE on July 29th.
When the second case was notified on August 10th and it was realised that both children were attending the same school, the HSE began a screening programme.