Sacramento County, July 31, 2014 - Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will offer Tuberculosis (TB) screening to returning Grant Union High School students in August. This screening is for any student or staff member at GUHS who has not been tested for the Tuberculosis infection. Confidential test results will be provided at the school.
This follows a community meeting held at the Joe Mims, Jr. Hagginwood Community Center on Thursday, July 24 where Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna and Sacramento City Councilman Allen Warren invited the public to hear directly from health officials. Those in attendance had an opportunity to ask questions and receive information from the County’s Public Health Officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye, as well as from Dr. Thomas Bertsch, the County TB clinician and Controller, and Kaiser Hospital Physician, Dr. John Belko. During the meeting, Supervisor Serna commented that he takes very seriously the health of our community’s children, and that “Tonight’s assemblage of health professionals is intended to provide important information and to give parents an opportunity to have their questions answered.”
Dr. Kasirye would like to remind the public that all four students who have been diagnosed with active disease are on treatment and are not infectious, and that students who were diagnosed with latent TB are not sick and cannot pass it on to others. Students determined to have the latent form of TB are receiving preventive treatment so that the TB bacteria will not cause active disease years later. “All exposure to the disease occurred prior to March, and there was only one student who was identified as infectious. That student has been treated.”
Materials about TB are available from DHHS and will be distributed in the community. Additional information can also be found at
http://www.cdc.gov/tb/.
Members of the public may call their health provider if they would like to be tested. Those needing information on insurance may call Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, 1-800-560-0976.
