Flathead High to hold informational sessions following tuberculosis diagnosis

Flathead High School will host two information sessions on tuberculosis following the diagnosis of one of its students.

The student had recently traveled abroad and is currently following isolation procedures, according to a press release Tuesday by Kalispell Public Schools superintendent Mark Flatau. The individual is the only diagnosed case of tuberculosis in the high school, and those who were in close proximity to the infected student are being tested for exposure.

Flathead City-County Health Officer Hillary Hanson said Tuesday that there is no need to panic. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable, and the Health Department is “preventing the active disease” through screenings and tests for latent tuberculosis.

The information sessions with representatives from the City-County Health Department and Kalispell Regional Healthcare will be held in the Flathead High School Auditorium at 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. They will give concerned citizens the opportunity to “go through what exposure means and talk to the infectious disease physician,” Hanson said. A specialist from Kalispell Regional Healthcare will be on hand to answer questions.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection whose symptoms include a cough longer than three weeks, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, chills, fever and coughing up blood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tuberculosis is not easily transmitted; it is acquired through breathing in droplets from an infected person’s cough or sneeze. It cannot spread through contact with clothing, drinking glasses, eating utensils, handshakes, toilets or other surfaces.

For additional questions, contact the Health Department at 751-8219. For more information about tuberculosis, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website at www.cdc.gov/tb.