Gwinnett County’s Discovery High School wrapped up the year with the assurance that no additional active cases of tuberculosis were identified during the push to have everyone tested after Spring Break.
Principal Marci Sledge shared the news with Discovery families and staff during the last week of school.
Back in March, the Gwinnett County Health Department ordered mandatory testing for a group of 240 individuals who had come into close contact with someone at the school who had an active case of TB. That round yielded at least one additional case, so the health department called for all students and staff to be tested in April. That was more than 3,000 individuals.
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Moving forward, the health department will complete a second round of skin-testing for approximately 205 individuals tested in the first round, following CDC national guidelines for completing a TB contact
investigation.
“These individuals were among those originally identified as having "close and continuous contact" with the ill student, wrote Sledge.
The testing will occur over the summer, to be completed by July 12 through the health
department's Preventive Health Clinic or the individual's primary care physician.
As no additional cases of active TB disease were identified, the health department will not require a second test for the larger group of students and staff who were tested in April.
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