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Thursday, November 1. 1990 / University Daliv Kansan
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Both of those students, who developed the disease two years ago, are now fine, Yockey said.
Yockey said that more than 100 students had been treated for inactive, or non-contagious, tuberculosis this year.
Tuberculosis reports increase
"When they came in, the disease was very advanced." he said.
"Children can wake up with TB and be dead within 12 hours," Yockey said. "Anybody working with child protection organization can documentation proving they are free of TB."
Measles is not the only dreaded disease threatening the KU community this year. Reports of tuberculosis have been steadily increasing since the mid-1980s, according to health officials.
Children and AIDS patients especially susceptible to disease
Dormant TB carriers develop the active, symptom-producing phase of the disease when their immune systems have been weakened by disease or lack of sleep. Symptoms include a height weight loss and a persistent cough.
Vockey said the number of tuberculosis cases began to increase in the early 1800s, shortly after AIDS cases multiplied. AIDS patients are susceptible to tuberculosis because their immune systems are weakened.
"It's a difficult disease to understand," Geer said. "Each individual case is different."
Yockey said children also were in greater danger of catching tuberculosis because their immune systems were weak, and strong enough to fight the disease.
If the patch test is positive, a chest X-ray is done to determine which TB phase the carrier has. Treatment depends on the severity of the disease.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said the student diagnosed last week was hospitalized for treatment and was no longer contagious.
By Courtney Eblen Kansan staff writer
Geer said that up to 2,000 people in Kansas had received antibiotics for inactive tuberculosis. There is no TB immunization in the United States, though a non-standardized vaccine is used in several Third World countries.
Five KU students have been diagnosed with contagious TB since 1986. Two of those students almost died, Yockey said.
Tuberculosis has two separate phases. One, which 90 percent of carriers have, is an inactive phase (which does not cause disease) and it is not contagious. Geer said.
know they have it. Geer said. Carriers are identified with a skin "patch" test.
A case of contagious tuberculosis was reported at the University of Kansas last month.
Harold Geer, director of tuberculosis control at the Kansas Health Department's Bureau of Disease
Control, said Kansas had not experienced the same rapid increase of TB cases other states had in the past five years. In statewide cases has not decreased.
"We're just running neck and neck with last year," Geer said. According to the Kansas Department of Disease Control, 55 cases of contagious TB have been reported in Kansas this year.
Geer said tuberculosis was spread by carriers of the contagious strain of the disease when they sneeze or cough.
Tuberculosis can remain dormant for years and carriers often do not
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