BOISE, Idaho — There may be no ongoing threat, but concerns were on the rise after a letter from the Boise School District said some students and staff may have been exposed to tuberculosis (TB).
The letter went out Thursday to the entire Capital High School community.
School and health officials say they recently learned about the person with TB.
"The understanding we have is that it was a health professional locally who brought this to [the Central District Health Department's] attention, and as part of their investigation, they contacted us," Boise School District spokesperson Dan Hollar said.
The infected person was at the school from January through May of this year. According to school officials, that person is no longer at the high school or with the Boise School District. School and health officials would not release any more information on the person who was diagnosed with TB, citing privacy reasons.
"The information is such it is safe to go to school if you're a staff member or student at Capital High School," Hollar said.
The Central District Health Department is working with the school district to determine who may been exposed to the disease. At this time, there is no known ongoing risk for TB exposure at Capital High School.
CDHD has contacted persons by mail who may have been exposed to the active case of TB. Those letters were mailed on Wednesday, and included information regarding evaluation and testing.
"Those individuals who were contacted are the ones considered to be potentially at the higher risk of exposure," CDHD spokesman Brandon Atkins said. "There are fewer than 10% of the population of individuals that may be potentially exposed at the school [who] received letters."
Only people contacted directly by the health department will need to take action.
"Anyone who didn't receive that letter shouldn't worry about reaching out," he added.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial lung disease, and not all cases are infectious to other people around.
"It really is something that requires an outlet to get into the air and be spread," Atkins said. "So say a room, you and I are talking in close proximity towards one another, we could be talking for a couple minutes and if I had active TB and was coughing, you may or may not be exposed in that time frame."
It usually takes a longer time-frame in a closed area to get the disease.
"Its what we would call a slow metabolizer, which means it takes a long time to do what it does," Atkins said.
Symptoms of the disease can be loss of weight, loss in appetite, coughing, fever, and night sweats.
Idaho is a third of the national average when it comes to the number of people with TB, according to the CDHD.
"In our population, per 100,000 people we usually see less than one person that may see active tuberculosis," Atkins said. "The national average is usually trending around 3 people per 100,000."
The disease can be fatal, although deaths caused by TB are considered rare.
"Its very rare that individuals who have access to healthcare, and who are able to get tested for it have that issue because the medication is very good at what it does," Atkins said.
In Idaho, there were 15 cases of TB reported in 2018 and 8 of those were in Ada County, according to the CDHD.
If someone receives a letter notifying them they may have come into contact with this individual, the health department is urging those people to call the number provided, and set up a time to get tested so treatment can get started immediately if its needed.
Anyone who wishes to be tested for TB should contact their health care provider.