Wednesday, May 30, 2001

Health officials: TB case no cause for alarm

By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@TheCitizenNews.com

The public was never in any danger from the tuberculosis that struck an employee of a local restaurant recently, health officials said.

"There was no transmission," said Diana Gaskins, who heads up the Fayette County Health Department's TB program. A restaurant patron phoned The Citizen concerned about exposure, but there was nothing to worry about, said Gaskins.

TB outbreaks are a concern to health officials. The disease is deadly enough that when a case occurs, law requires that it be reported to the state.

But it's rare, and on the decline in the United States, according to Ann Poole, nurse educator for the state Health Department.

The number of cases in Georgia rose to a peak of 909 in 1991. There were 703 cases last year, compared with 670 in 1999. In 1998, the latest year recorded, there were 1,110 deaths out of 18,361 cases of TB nationwide.

"It's much harder to catch than the common cold," Poole said.

Gaskins said employees of the restaurant were all tested when the local case was discovered, and all the test results were negative.

The worker affected was not in contact with the public, she said, and even if there had been contact, casual exposure is not enough to put people in danger, she added.

"It takes prolonged exposure to coughing in a closed environment," Gaskins said. In this case, the patient wasn't even coughing, she added.

TB cannot be transmitted through food or skin contact, she added, and Poole backed that up. "It's airborne bacteria," she said.