Tuberculosis case confirmed at Helix High

LA MESA

A single tuberculosis case confirmed at Helix Charter High School has prompted the county Health and Human Services Agency to offer free testing on Dec. 1 to about 230 people who were exposed from Aug. 3 to Nov. 13.

The agency has released very little information about the infected individual, declining to list age or gender or whether he or she was a student, teacher, staff member or other person regularly visiting the La Mesa school on University Avenue. Public health workers investigating the case are directly contacting those known to have been in contact with the patient.

Symptoms of tuberculosis infection include persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss. Infection spreads through the air, though spores have difficulty penetrating the body’s multi-layered defense system, meaning that only those with prolonged and intense exposure are at high risk.

Jennifer Osborn, the school’s public relations officer, said Monday that Helix Charter received notification from the county about the infection Friday, just its 2,400 students were entering the week-long Thanksgiving break.

“We’re going to to whatever the county tells us to do and follow their protocol,” Osborn said.

Once infection is confirmed, a range of drugs exist to treat infection, tough it can take six to nine months to complete a full course.

To date, 184 cases of tuberculosis have been reported in San Diego County so far this year. That’s down from 220 cases last year and only 206 in 2013 which was the lowest number since a peak of 469 cases in 1993.

For more information, call (619) 692-8621.

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com