5/30/2014
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AMARILLO, TEXAS -- The Amarillo Bi-City-County Health Department is completing its investigation and reading the results of students and staff tested for tuberculosis exposure at Fannin Middle School. So far, as of 4:30 p.m. today, a total of 706 people have been tested and had their tests read, and of those people, a total of 84 people tested positive for TB exposure. As of today, no additional active cases of TB have been identified.
The health department is completing evaluations of all potential exposures and should be finished next week. A handful of students and staff were not available this week for evaluation.
“In testing classmates, teachers and close contacts, we saw a 15.6 percent exposure rate with no active cases identified,” says Dr. Matt Richardson, director of Public Health for the City of Amarillo. “When we expanded the testing to the entire school, we found a 9.8 percent exposure rate so far, telling us that there was not a widespread exposure. According to our state health department partners, we believe this expanded, campus-wide rate looks like the rate found in the general population in Amarillo.”
Dr. Richardson expects the investigation to conclude next week and that no additional testing at Fannin Middle School or any Amarillo Independent School District campus is necessary.
The testing was prompted after a case of active tuberculosis was discovered in a Fannin Middle School student last month. All testing and treatment has been provided at no cost to the families.
“We appreciate the patience and cooperation provided to us by AISD as well as parents,” Dr. Richardson says. “This allowed us to move the process forward in the proper manner and to reach everyone we needed to before school released for the summer.”
If parents or staff need further information, they may call the City of Amarillo Department of Public Health at (806) 378-6300.
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