Student tests positive for TB

University officials confirmed Friday that an IU student has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. The individual in question has begun the appropriate plan of treatment and has been isolated at an off-campus location.\nOther individuals who might have been exposed through contact with the diagnosed patient will be notified through the mail and given a free TB test by the IU Health Center.\nTuberculosis is a bacterial infection that is spread through the air. Once infected, the bacteria can attack any part of the body, but most frequently targets the lungs. An individual infected with tuberculosis will not necessarily develop the disease -- those with weakened immune systems, such as children or HIV patients are the most at risk of developing symptoms. Those infected with tuberculosis must take a series of medicines to cure the disease.\n"Testing for TB requires a minimum of three months from the time of exposure before the test becomes reactive," said Hugh Jessop, director of the IU Health Center in a press release. "Individuals exposed to a person with an active TB infection may or may not contract the disease. Anyone exposed to a known case one day, and who is tested soon thereafter and is positive, was unknowingly exposed to some other infected person and became reactive as a result of that prior exposure. It takes a minimum of three months for a positive test."\nThose who test negative will be asked to return in three months for a second test. Those who test negative again will be classified as "not at risk" for the current situation.\nOnce the leading cause of death in the United States, tuberculosis cases began declining after doctors developed the first drugs to combat the disease in the 1940s. But the reported number of cases in the U.S. began rising again after 1984. 150 cases were reported in Indiana in 1999, 1 of which was in Monroe County.