New Mexico, Texas, Colorado Alerts Bus
Passengers to TB Case that traveled in August
December 1, 2008 - Santa Fe – The
New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas Departments of Health
announced today that a person recently diagnosed with
infectious tuberculosis (TB) in New Mexico traveled on an
interstate commercial bus that originated from El Paso,
Texas. The bus traveled through New Mexico to its final
destination of Greeley, Colorado.
It is important to know that only
passengers who rode the bus with the tuberculosis case on
Sunday, August 3, 2008 and/or Saturday, August 9, 2008 were
at risk for being exposed to that case of tuberculosis.
The individual who has tuberculosis traveled on August 3.
The bus departed from El Paso, Texas at 8 a.m. and the
person with TB boarded the bus in Albuquerque at
approximately 12:30 p.m. The bus arrived in Greeley later
that evening.
Although the tuberculosis case boarded the
bus in Albuquerque on August 3, any passengers who may have
boarded the bus in El Paso, Texas, Las Cruces, Belen, or
Albuquerque, and continued on the bus to later stops on the
route to Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver, or Greeley are
asked to call one of the numbers below for instructions on
what to do. The patient with TB also
returned to Albuquerque on Saturday, August 9, traveling
with the same bus company and leaving Greeley at about 9
a.m. to arrive in Albuquerque at 5 p.m. Any passengers who
boarded the return bus on August 9 in Greeley, Denver,
Colorado Springs or Pueblo, Colo. are also asked to call the
appropriate health department as well.
Please call the office nearest to you.
El Paso City/County Health at (915) 771-1230
New Mexico Department of Health at (505) 827-2473
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment at
(888)356-0332
Dr. Marcos Burgos, the New Mexico
Department of Health’s TB Medical Director, said people
often delay seeking care and may be ill with symptoms of
tuberculosis for many weeks or months before it is
diagnosed.
“People can expose others to tuberculosis
without knowing they have the disease,” Dr. Burgos said.
“During the contact investigation process, which requires
several interviews with the case, we identify all the
possible individuals who may have been exposed to TB. It is
not unusual for people exposed to be notified weeks or
months later of their potential exposure.”
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that can be spread
from one person to another through the air when a person
with active TB coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings. Anyone
sharing air for prolonged periods of time with a person with
infectious TB can breathe TB germs into their lungs. TB
germs can live in the body for many years in an inactive
form without causing illness. This is called latent TB
infection. People with latent TB infection cannot spread TB
to others, but they are at risk of developing TB disease if
their infection goes untreated. In some people with
conditions that weaken the immune system there may be a
greater risk of progressing from latent TB infection to TB
disease.
TB disease is different from latent TB
infection. In TB disease the germs are actively growing,
causing symptoms such as cough, fever, weight loss, and
fatigue. People with TB disease can transmit TB to others.
Although the risk of TB infection from exposure on a bus is
considered small, it is very important that passengers be
medically evaluated. The medical evaluation may involve the
following:
-
A TB skin test or blood test to help
determine if you have TB infection
-
People with positive TB skin tests or
blood tests or symptoms of TB will be asked to have a
chest x-ray
-
They may also be asked to give a sample
of sputum (phlegm coughed up from the lungs)
Anyone found to have TB infection or TB
disease will be offered treatment |
