WATCH: Tuberculosis patient found in Scarborough high school. Peter Kim reports.
TORONTO – Someone at a Scarborough high school has contracted tuberculosis, public health officials confirmed Friday.
Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School officials said the individual is recovering at home but would not confirm if the sick individual is a student.
The school sent a letter home with students that explained “the general school population is at very low risk of exposure.”
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The school has identified an unspecified number of people who will be tested for tuberculosis.
According to documents on the city’s website, there were 310 reported cases of tuberculosis in Toronto during 2011. Travel to an area where the disease is still endemic – such as sub-saharan Africa or some Asian countries – is the most common cause of exposure, the city says.
A significant majority of tuberculosis cases in Toronto are found in foreign-born residents, according to the city; 93 per cent of people affected by the disease in Toronto during 2011 were foreign-born.
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that spreads when someone whose disease is active in the lungs coughs or sneezes. The letter to students at Mary Ward Catholic School reiterates that the disease is not easily spread but warns a “person can become infected with the germ if he/she has a close, prolonged contact with the person who has TB.”
Symptoms include a cough that lasts more than 3 weeks, weight loss, fever, night sweats and a feeling of fatigue.
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