TB case hasn't fueled scare at high school

It's business as usual at Barrington High School following last week's news that one of its students has come down with tuberculosis.

Barrington Area Unit District 220 Superintendent Tom Leonard said attendance was typical for a Monday, and that no special precautions have been necessary.

A Lake County Health Department staff member will be at school today to test about 30 students and staff determined to have been in close enough proximity to be at risk of infection. Test results take about two days.

"(The health department) has indicated they'd be surprised if any more positive cases are found based on the infectious nature," Leonard said.

Officials say the student, who has not been identified, has "regular TB," as opposed to the more dangerous extensively drug-resistant TB or multidrug-resistant TB, the strain that infected the Atlanta lawyer who created a public health scare by potentially exposing passengers while flying over the summer.

Treatment for the regular kind of TB involves multiple drugs taken daily for six to nine months, said Cook County Department of Public Health spokeswoman Kitty Loewy.

Patients usually must have three negative tests before they're allowed to return to their normal routine. That could be 10 days or two weeks, Loewy said.

The Cook County health department typically treats about 120 active cases of TB annually. Lake County, where Barrington High is located, has by comparison reported 10 cases this year.

Barrington High was notified by Cook County health officials, who'd been informed of the diagnosis by the student's physician.

The case hasn't prompted any panic or even many calls of concern.

"There were some phone calls and conversations with parents from that group of 30," Leonard said. "But the feedback has mostly been people thankful for the information.

"It's a large school district with lots of kids," he added. "Different diseases will come through. It's the nature of the beast."

In the meantime, there's no need for the school to take additional measures, Leonard said. The school did its typical cleaning over the weekend and simply "picked it up a notch" in certain rooms.

"Even if the virus is in the room, it naturally dies within a short period of time," he said.