TB Exposure: Teacher who tested positive concerned about disease’s spread

A teacher at Frank Macias Elementary School who tested positive for latent tuberculosis said on Wednesday she had major concerns about the disease spreading further.

The educator didn’t want her identity revealed because the school district has not authorized her to speak publicly on the issue.

The teacher, like the others who tested positive for TB, has to undergo strict months-long treatment to make sure she won’t develop active TB and spread the disease to her family. “I’m a mother as well and a teacher this has been a shock to myself and my family,” she said.

Her main concern is that someone infected won’t complete the strict treatment. “If we don’t follow our treatment how it’s supposed to be, latent eventually becomes active. So knowing that so many people are on medication, and decided all of a sudden not to take their medication you could one day wake up and have active and in one day you could infect 10 to 15 people,” she said.

Clint ISD District Spokeswoman Laura Cade, in an email, said the district cannot monitor medical treatment. “The District does not have access to the medical information of these individuals nor does the health department provide it to us. Because we do not have any evidence of individuals who are not accepting treatment, it is not an issue we are addressing at this time,” she wrote in an email Wednesday.

For the teachers, that’s more alarming. “Working in a school setting, with so many are enclosed in one school it makes you nervous that maybe one of these days this can come up again during the school year. I care a lot for our students. We care a lot for the kids and the least thing we want is for them to be sick and unhealthy in our classroom.”