A student at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has contracted the highly contagious bacterial disease tuberculosis and was recently on its campus.
“In collaboration with the [Florida Department of Health in Broward County], Broward County Public Schools has identified and notified individuals who may have been in close contact. With parental consent, DOH-Broward will be on-site to provide testing. Impacted students and staff have been directly contacted,” BCPS spokesman John Sullivan told ABC News.
Other students at the school said the sick person was a fellow pupil who was coughing repeatedly.
“Like he kept coughing and like I was scared. And I looked on my phone and it was like ’Oh, somebody got sick.’ I think the ambulance came and got him,” one student told Miami’s WSVN.
The patient hasn’t been identified, and neither school nor Florida health officials have said how the student contracted the disease.
“We won’t know for a few days if any other kids that they tested have been exposed,” Mr. Sullivan told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium and spreads by respiratory droplets expelled during coughing or sneezing. It settles in the lungs and can spread to the rest of the body from there, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
General symptoms of tuberculosis include weakness and fatigue, loss of appetite and weight, chills, fever and night sweats.
Tuberculosis of the spine can cause back pain, and if the illness spreads to the brain, it can cause headaches or confusion.
