Victorian illness fears in city after super-spreader visits multiple schools

16 December 2023 , 20:12

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Tuberculosis can be treated with antibiotics (Image: Getty Images)

Tuberculosis, a disease often associated with the Victorian era, has been sweeping across Las Vegas after an infected person went to 26 schools.

The Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD) issued a warning after revealing the person had visited the schools and a Clark County School District training site before they realised they had the deadly infection and reported the case.

Individual notifications have been issued to people at 17 campuses who may have had exposure. A broader warning has been issued for the Ruthe Deskin Elementary School.

Eight other schools have been investigated but so far no exposures have been identified. The SNHD emphasised that not everyone who may have been exposed will be infected.

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Students and parents at Ruthe Deskin Elementary have been informed that they may have been exposed to Tuberculosis (google)

TB can develop into a latent or active infection in a patient.

Persons with latent TB do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms, while most persons with active TB experience symptoms. Latent TB can develop into an active variety without treatment.

Patients with latent TB cannot spread the disease to others.

It is unclear why the infected person was at multiple schools. A thorough investigation is being carried out. The health district will provide screening and testing for those who want to check if they are infected.

Although TB was a horrific and mostly untreatable disease throughout much of history, it now can be cured with a course of antibiotics.

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Currently medication takes at least six months, and if drugs are stopped early it can come back in a much more deadly drug-resistant form.

Multi-drug resistance remains a major concern for TB treatment, but the latest data indicates that the proportion of people with a multi-drug resistant form of the TB bacteria has remained relatively stable in recent years.

The disease is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. According to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): "Tuberculosis bacteria spread through the air from one person to another.

“When a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, speaks, or sings, TB bacteria can get into the air. People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected."

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Although usually attacking the lungs, the CDC explained that it can attack any body part including the kidney, spine and brain.

Symptoms include a bad cough that lasts 3 weeks or longer, pain in the chest, coughing up blood, or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs). Other signs the disease has developed include weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever, or sweating at night, it added.

Charlie Jones