Tuberculosis outbreak reported at Hunan middle school

Twenty-nine students have been diagnosed with tuberculosis by Thursday due to an outbreak at a middle school in Taojiang county, Hunan province, local health authorities said Friday.

Five other students are suspected of having the disease, and another 38 students are taking medication for disease prevention, according to a released statement from the Hunan Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission.

All 72 students from Taojiang No 4 Middle School are now under treatment and health care management, the statement said.

Following the outbreak of the disease in August, various health authorities in Hunan province have taken measures for the treatment of those infected, and the outbreak has been put under effective control, the commission said.

Students and parents at the school were aware of a TB outbreak in mid-August, when the school organized tests for students in a senior-grade class at the school, according to the Beijing News.

The outbreak was first confirmed Thursday by the government of Taojiang county, which said the outbreak occurred at the school Aug 19, but released no exact number of infected students.

In a statement released Friday evening, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the country's health authority, said its minister Li Bin had urged local authorities in Hunan province to verify information, release information and do its best to provide treatment to students infected with the disease following media reports of the outbreak this week.

Staff and experts dispatched by the national commission arrived in Taojiang Friday afternoon to supervise the handling of the outbreak, the statement said.

TB is curable and preventable, and schools must report confirmed or suspected cases immediately to local centers of disease control and prevention for screening and tests according to laws and regulations, the statement said.

"Many of our experts are dispatched to Taojiang to handle the incident," a staff member from the Hunan Provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who declined to be named, told China Daily Friday over the phone.

The Taojiang Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Taojiang No 4 Middle School did not answer phone calls Friday.

Tang Yi, director of the Hunan Institute for Tuberculosis Control's department of prevention and control, said places with a high population concentration such as schools are vulnerable to TB outbreaks, due to close contact among people and lack of preventive measures.

"The disease can be transmitted through coughing, sneezing and spit while talking," she said. "Some cases can infect up to 15 others within a year if not properly treated."

TB is preventive and curable, and once a student is found to be infected, he or she must quit school for treatment to prevent transmission, she said.

The infected can go back to school with certification produced by certified hospitals proving they have recovered or treatment has been successful so there is little chance of transmission of the disease, she said.