All Posts Tagged With: "tuberculosis"
UNB Saint John to test hundreds for Tuberculosis
Student tests positive
Up to 300 students and five faculty members at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John will be tested for Tuberculosis (TB) after a classmate tested positive for the airborne disease.
Public health officials notified the university on Monday morning that a student had tested positive for the infection, reports the Telegraph-Journal. The university notified the public Tuesday.
Kevin Bonner, director of student services, told the paper that skin tests will be available in the university’s gymnasium on Friday. Results are often available in just a few days.
Health Canada reports that TB, although serious, is not very contagious. “A person usually has to have frequent exposure to someone with active TB,” says its website. “For example, spending several hours a day with a person with active TB could put you at risk of infection.”
There are approximately 1,600 new cases of TB reported in Canada every year. Health Canada says it usually attacks the lungs, but can also impact the lymph nodes, kidneys, urinary tract and bones. It is easily cured with antibiotics, but still kills almost two million people worldwide each year.
ULethbridge student treated for TB
Student caught infectious disease on a Greyhound bus between Alberta and B.C.
An Alberta student who was a passenger on a Greyhound bus last week has been diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Spokesman Andy Hakin says the University of Lethbridge student is being treated for the potentially infectious disease and is recovering.
Last week passengers who took two Greyhound buses between Lethbridge and Kelowna, B.C., were told they may have been exposed to tuberculosis and were urged to get tested.
The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said a person with active TB travelled on Greyhound bus 5164 from Lethbridge to Calgary on May 24 and then transferred to bus 5155 for the trip to Kelowna.
- The Canadian Press
