Over 200 pupils to be tested after TB outbreak

MORE than 200 primary school children are to be screened for TB at a Cork school just days before the start of a new term.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday confirmed that three children who attend Ballintemple National School at Crab Lane in the suburbs of Cork city have contracted the disease and are under specialist paediatric care. The children have started anti-tuberculous treatment and a full course of treatment takes six to nine months.

The source of the disease has not yet been identified.

The HSE said an investigation of the cluster of cases is ongoing, co-ordinated by an outbreak control team.

Public health consultant Dr Margaret O’Sullivan said the outbreak at the school was identified on August 10 and parents were notified by letter on August 12.

“The first child case was notified to the Department of Public Health on July 29. Contact tracing commenced involving the child’s family and close contacts. It was not until notification of a second child case on Tuesday, August 10, that any possible link with the school was suspected. Following a risk assessment, the decision was made that all staff and pupils at the school would be screened,” she said.

A third child case was notified on August 17. Parents have since received a second letter outlining screening clinic details. Screening of approximately 220 children and staff will begin at the chest clinic in St Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork on Monday. It will include the completion of a symptom questionnaire, a Mantoux Test (skin test) and a chest X-ray if clinically indicated. The vaccine will be considered once screening is complete.

Family members of the children who have contracted TB are also being offered screening.

The HSE said yesterday that school management is liaising closely with the investigation team.

Dr O’Sullivan said parents will be informed about the re-opening of the school in due course. As yet, a helpline has not been set up, but Dr O’Sullivan said this could change depending on the outcome of the screening process.

So far this year, 53 cases of TB have been notified in the Cork/Kerry region, of which 48 occurred in Cork. Historically, the TB incidence rate in the Cork/Kerry region has been higher than the national incidence rate and this has in the past been blamed on the absence of routine vaccination of newborns, which was withdrawn in 1972 while remaining elsewhere in the country.

After a 36-year absence, it was re-introduced in 2008 following a TB outbreak in two Cork creches the previous year during which 21 people, affecting 18 children and three adults. The BCG vaccine is now available five days a week at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH).

A spokesperson for the HSE said there is a 95% uptake and no waiting list. Provisional figures for last year show 85 cases were notified in Cork/Kerry.

TB is an infection caused by a germ called mycobaterium tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs, but any part of the body may be affected. Close contacts of a person with TB who is coughing up phlegm are most at risk of infection.