State following two cases of suspected TB

The Texas Department of State Health Services has identified two suspected cases of tuberculosis at UTB-TSC and will hold a clinic Wednesday for people who could have been exposed to the disease.

"Only those people contacted by the Department of Health should go," said Karen Fuss-Sommer, outgoing interim director of Student Health Services at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

The clinic will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jacob Brown Auditorium.

"Tuberculosis is only a moderately infectious disease. It normally requires much longer exposure and close contact," said Dr. Brian Smith, regional director of the state health department, explaining that skin tests will be offered at the clinic and that anyone who tests positive will be offered preventive medicine.

"When you have large classrooms with good air conditioning, the risk is normally quite low," Smith said. "We're trying to do the safest thing possible."

Smith said the most important thing is identifying those people who could have come in contact with TB.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs and is spread through the air from one person to another by coughing or sneezing.

"People who are infected with TB do not feel sick, do not have any symptoms, and cannot spread TB. But they may develop TB disease at some time in the future. People with TB disease can be treated and cured if they seek medical help, although treatment may be long. Even better, today people who have TB infection but are not yet sick can take medicine so that they will never develop TB disease," a set of frequently asked questions about the disease on the state health department Web site states.

Smith said TB is a small problem in comparison to heart disease, diabetes or cancer, but a big concern in the Rio Grande Valley compared to the rest of the country.

"TB rates here are four times the national rate here because we're on the border," Smith said. "There are more people here that grew up in countries with higher rates of infection."

He said preventive medicine is needed to keep the disease under control "basically because the body doesn't kill off the bacteria completely."

In a sample of 100 people potentially exposed, perhaps 15 would have a positive reaction to the skin test, Smith said.

"They are not contagious, they are not sick," and if they take the right medicine they will never get full-blown tuberculosis," Smith said.

In addition to skin tests for anyone at the clinic who tests positive, additional services will be made available as needed, Smith said.