The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TEN people, eight staff members and two students, have tested positive for tuberculosis at R M Bailey Senior High in New Providence, Health Minister Dr Sands confirmed yesterday.

Speaking with reporters before heading into a Cabinet meeting yesterday, Dr Sands also revealed 235 people in Eleuthera had positive Mantoux tests and about “25 or so” have suspicious chest x-rays.

The Mantoux is a skin test that can tell if a person has had exposure to TB.

One person who was recently released from the Carmichael Road Detention Centre has also tested positive for TB and Dr Sands said his ministry is in the process of screening the people with whom he came into contact.

Despite the positive tests, Dr Sands said there is no reason to panic or be fearful. He said the Bahamas still has one of the lowest rates of TB in the world and the Ministry of Heath, along with the Department of Public Health, is working “hard to keep it that way”.

“In Eleuthera we have completed screening on 2,000 persons and we found thus far that more than an 100 persons in that screening have positive Mantoux tests and some of those persons have suspicious chest x-rays,” he said.

“Now I have to be very clear that suspicious x-rays does not necessarily mean TB, but it is more likely to be an active case and we are probably looking at 25 or so persons. When we now look at R M Bailey, we have screened about 110 staff and teachers and we have begun the process of screening the children, so all together we have screened just about 400 thus far, and eight teachers and staff members have had positive tuberculin skin tests and two students have had positive tests thus far. We still have a significant number of students to test and to finalise the reading of the skin tests on those who were screened.

“There is another case of an individual who has been in the Detention Centre for a number of years, who was discovered to have TB, and we are now in the process of educating and screening the persons with whom he has come in contact.”

Dr Sands said there is “really nothing” people can do to avoid contracting TB and is encouraging the public to have better hygiene practices and to educate themselves on the virus.

“The way you prevent TB is with appropriate public heath measures, screening and a level of etiquette as to how people behave when they cough and sneeze and how they discard tissue paper. If you sneeze in a crowded place block it with your arm,” he said.

“We have gotten to be not so good at these things. There is no bleach, no Dettol, no Lysol, no Savlon that you can clean the house that will reduce the likelihood of the spread of TB. We happen to enjoy one of the lowest rates of TB in the world and we want to keep it that way and so not withstanding that communication can be perceived as frightening, we are proud of our public health record and that the Bahamas ranks about 138th as it relates to other countries in terms of the amount of TB.”

TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. It is an infectious disease that generally affects the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections do not have symptoms.

If left untreated when it becomes active, the disease kills about half of those infected, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Anyone with questions on TB is asked to call the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance Unit at 376-1103, 376-3970 or 502-4705.