British health officials plan mass TB screening

British health officials were today planning a mass screening exercise after eight cases of tuberculosis were confirmed at a second UK school.

As preparations were continuing to screen 1,300 pupils from Duffryn High School in Newport, South Wales, health experts said it would hopefully prove to be just a small cluster - unlike the outbreak in Leicester where there are 50 confirmed cases.

Duffryn’s headteacher David Snashall said parents had been informed of the outbreak and screening would start when pupils return for the summer term next week.

‘‘It will be business as normal at the school on Monday when we start term so we are asking that all pupils turn up.

‘‘We want to reassure people that this screening is a precautionary measure. The chances of cross infection now are extremely low.’’

Public health officials who yesterday visited the school, where one in five pupils is from an ethnic minority, said the source of the outbreak was still not known.

Dr Dyfed Huws, of Gwent Health Authority, said that so far no links with an outbreak at a school in Leicester had been found.

There are 50 cases detected with connections to Crown Hills Community College in the Evington area of Leicester and 40 pupils have also shown early signs of TB. It is believed to be the worst outbreak in Britain for 20 years.

Dr Huws said: ‘‘As far as we know there are no links to Leicester. We have not yet identified the source and our investigations are continuing.

‘‘As a precautionary measure, in conjunction with the school and local education authority we have decided to extend the screening programme throughout the school.

‘‘TB is an illness which can be successfully and effectively treated with antibiotics.’’

The pupils who have contracted tuberculosis at Duffryn are all aged between 14 and 15.

The outbreak was discovered when schoolchildren in Year 10 were screened after a pupil contracted the disease at the end of March.

Between 150 and 200 children were screened then and seven more cases were found.

The Gwent trust is resuming a comprehensive programme of vaccination to protect against TB at all secondary schools in the area from September.

There has been a UK-wide shortage of vaccine which led to routine immunisation programmes against the illness being shelved during 1999/2000.

However, immunisation has been available for ‘‘at risk’’ and ‘‘contact’’ groups.

The Welsh cases emerged on the same day health managers in Gloucestershire said more than 1,000 former hospital patients were to be tested for TB after a nurse contracted the infectious disease.

Some 1,300 patients who were in contact with the health care worker at Cheltenham General Hospital over the last year are to be offered tests to see if they have picked up the infection.

Officials said that although the chances of her passing on the disease were rare, they were taking precautionary measures to protect patients.

Comment on the Welsh outbreak, Dr Peter Ormerod, a TB expert with the British Thoracic Society, said: ‘‘We have always had small clusters like this but because people have become much more aware of TB in recent years, they are more likely to be reported.

‘‘Children do not normally have the infectious form of the disease themselves - they are infected by an older teenager or an adult.‘‘

Dr Ormerod said the first move was to track down the source of the latest cluster by screening all the children in the same year as the pupil identified with TB, and to also check all adults at the school.

‘‘Most of the children will not be feeling unwell but may have just had a slightly abnormal X-ray,’’ he said.

‘‘But the fact that these clusters are still occurring underlines the point that TB has not gone away and that we still need diagnostic and treatment services.’’