A student has tested positive for tuberculosis. After receiving a notification from Abilene Taylor County Public Health on Monday, the university sent an email to students to alert them of the situation.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease affecting the lungs. The main symptom is a cough lasting more than two or three weeks, coughing up blood, fever, night, sweat, chest pain, shortness of breath and unexplained weight loss, said Shelby Hanigan, nurse practitioner at the Medical and Counseling Care Center.
Some people get what is called latent tuberculosis, which means they have tested positive but do not have symptoms and are not contagious. If latent tuberculosis goes untreated it can become tuburculosis disease.
The student who tested positive is being monitored by the health department and is not allowed back onto campus until they receive multiple negative tests for tuberculosis.
“So currently, we are working with the Abilene Taylor County Public Health District,” Hanigan said, “We’re following all the necessary public health protocols, including contact tracing, isolation and risk assessment.”
Any students at risk of exposure will be notified via email and given the option to receive a free test from the MACCC, along with anyone else who is concerned that they may have tuberculosis.
“You come for a TB test. We read it two days later,” Hanigan said. “If it is positive, we refer you to the Abilene Taylor County Health Department, and they will then do a chest X-ray for confirmation, and that is also free of charge.”
The MACCC does not offer tuberculosis vaccines because of the low risk of tuberculosis and the vaccine’s low effectiveness against the disease, said Hanigan.
One of the groups encouraged to get tested includes residents at Bullock Hall, who received a mass email on Tuesday, where they offered specific times and locations for testing, said Adriana Perez, a resident of Bullock.
“It’s been pretty chaotic,” said Perez, freshman nursing major from Breckinridge, Texas. ”It’s been crazy, I guess not everyone knew how you got tested for tuberculosis, so everybody’s freaking out about the needles and the testing process.”
Hanigan encouraged students to practice basic preventative measures such as hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes and also staying home if they feel unwell. If students are concerned they may have tuberculosis, they should schedule an appointment with their primary care provider or the medical clinic at the MACCC.
