THE HEALTH Ministry yesterday played down reports a 14-year-old Nicosia pupil had been diagnosed with and was receiving hospital treatment for tuberculosis.
The ministry said the youngster had been diagnosed on Wednesday and was being treated for the infectious lung disease at a sanitarium in the mountain village of Kyperounda.
Health Services were yesterday at the school to test all 126 pupils and teachers for the mycobacteria that causes TB.
Head of secondary school education at the Education Ministry, Zena Poulli, said the results should be ready on Monday morning.
“The school operated normally,” she added.
Health Ministry infectious disease specialist Dr Chrystalla Hadjianastasiou said: “A 14-year-old child has tuberculosis. There is no need for panic. It is something that is treatable and we are taking all necessary prevention measures.”
Although an uncommon disease, a single outbreak did not make it news, she said.
“We have sporadic incidences just as we have sporadic incidences of meningitis. It can be cured and there is no cause for panic,” she reiterated.
Hadjianastasiou said the child was being treated and his environment was under investigation.
The 14-year-old youth was in good health and within three weeks would no longer be contagious and allowed to leave hospital under continued medical supervision, she said.
The specialist said that even if a person tested positive for mycobacteria that did not mean he or she had TB.
“It just means that they have gotten the mycobacterium and that means that they might not get TB but that in a few years they’ll develop TB symptoms,” she said.
She said people that tested positive for the bacterium would be given prevention treatment to ensure there was no chance of developing the potentially life threatening condition in future.
Even if teachers and/or pupils tested positive for the bacterium, that did not mean that it was because they had come into contact with the particular child, but it might have been a chance finding, added Hadjianastasiou.
“Tuberculosis today is treatable. There is no need for panic. The treatment is easy as long as the patient follows the doctor’s instructions,” she said.
