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Source: The Palm Beach Post, Fla.mini storageSept. 06--A student who attended the Jupiter Middle School of Technology last May with active tuberculosis may have exposed as many as 18 other people to the illness, follow up tests indicate.The Palm Beach County Health Department returned to the school in last month to re-test 166 of the 301 people who were tested in May.Those follow up blood tests have identified 18 cases of possible latent infection, health department spokesman Tim O'Connor said today. Chest x-rays and sputum tests will tell more about the status of their infections, he said.Tuberculosis is usually kept in check by people's immune system. But if they become run down or ill from something else, it can burst into active disease, usually within two years of exposure. Only the active disease is contagious. The health department will recommend people with latent TB infection undergo a three-month course of weekly preventive antibiotics, O'Connor said."They are not contagious, they do not pose any threat to the community," O'Connor said of the 18.The agency has spent over $123,000 on five TB investigations so far this year, discovering 16 people with active disease, at a time when it is facing historically large funding cuts. Each active case requires testing of those people's close contacts.Most recently, a catering company food-service worker who became ill with tuberculosis was sharing quarters and bus rides with fellow foreign workers.The worker helpedself storagewith meals served at multiple communities in West Palm Beach and Boca Raton, he said. Tests are being conducted on 85 people to see how many others need treatment, O'Connor said.Conducting these sorts of investigations are costly, but they are critical to keeping small outbreaks from becoming large ones, he said.Tuberculosis is at historic lows in the United States now, but it's still endemic in much of the world, reinforcing the importance of strong disease surveillance, O'Connor said. Of the 16 people diagnosed with active TB in Palm Beach County this year, 10 were foreign-born, data shows.Budget cuts may force the health agency to close and consolidate some of its disease control clinics.Five years ago, the state sent about $21 million a year in general revenue into Palm Beach County's branch of the Florida Department of Health. Last year, the state sent about $8 million in general revenue. This year, the public health agency is facing an 8 percent budget shortfall without a rescue grant from the Health Care District. It has asked the special taxing district for a $4.6 million grant. So far, however, finance committee members have been reluctant to support the request.A special finance committee meeting to discuss the issue a third time has been called for Sept. 12.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) Visit The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) at .palmbeachpost.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉