A Hawai‘i Pacific University student who attended Kapi‘olani Community College was confirmed to have active tuberculosis.
In a report by KITV News, the student was enrolled at KCC last fall. Since then, more than 120 students and faculty members were screened for tuberculosis.
Before entering college, students are required to update their tuberculosis (TB) tests and turn in the results to the campus they will be attending.
Just in 2011 alone, 123 TB cases were reported in Hawai‘i, with 103 of them from O‘ahu.When referring to TB cases, it means the people diagnosed with the active TB disease.
There are two forms of TB: latent, when the infection is non-contagious; and active, the contagious stage, said Derrick Felix, senior public health advisor for the State of Hawai‘i Health Department and Tuberculosis Control Program.
A person has latent TB when the X-rays are clear and the skin test results are positive. In the last 10 years – from 2002 to 2011 – there have been an average of 121 cases, a 7 percent increase from 2010. But there has been a decline in reported TB cases between 2008 and 2010.
Unlike those migrating to Hawai‘i – those looking for work and have a visa are required to get tested – foreign students are not required to be tested before entering the islands. Majority of the cases are foreign born, Felix said.
Students who were in the same classes as the student with active TB in March were immediately contacted and requested to come in for testing.
“Enough time has passed for one skin test to be OK,” Felix said.
Approximately 95 students and faculty members at KCC were sent emails regarding their direct exposure to the student with TB.
The Department of Health sent out two emails requesting students and faculty come in for testing and informing them of the situation.
Around 40 students came in for testing, which is less than 50 percent.
Both Felix and Richard Brostrom, Hawai‘i TB control branch chief and regional TB field medical office, and the Center for Disease Control encourages students directly exposed to get tested.
“We try our best to get a hold of them and get them to come in (for testing),” Felix said.
When students get the results of their TB tests before going to school, or if at all, anyone who is diagnosed with active TB or believed to have TB, or TB suspects are reported to the Hawai‘i State Department of Health TB Control Program. With every case that the program gets, they must identify the period of time the person was contagious, for this student, he or she first started at KCC and then went to HPU.
While the situation has been referred to as a TB scare, students do not need to concerned, but should be aware of the situation, Felix said.
Those who were not exposed directly to the student with active TB do not need to get tested.
“If they (students) are concerned they should see their own doctor,” Felix said.