Olathe Northwest High School student has tuberculosis

A student at Olathe Northwest High School has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis, Johnson County and Kansas health officials announced Wednesday.

The student is being treated and will be out of school two to four weeks until he or she is no longer infectious. Neither the student’s grade nor sex was released.

Health officials are working to identify Northwest students and staff who should be screened for the disease.

“It will probably be somewhere around 300 or so,” said Phil Griffin, deputy director of the Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention and TB controller at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “We cast the net pretty widely.”

The screenings, which involve a blood draw, are expected to begin next week.

The affected student was diagnosed Tuesday. Health officials met Wednesday afternoon with faculty and staff at the high school. All students were notified about the situation and an electronic message was sent to parents.

Olathe School District spokeswoman Maggie Kolb said parents would receive additional information about screenings Thursday.

In addition, a public forum is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school commons, 21300 College Blvd.

TB is spread through the air by coughing, laughing, singing and sneezing. A person would have to be in close contact for several hours a day with an infected person to contract the disease. It cannot be spread by a handshake or a drinking glass, desk or other surfaces.

“Typically, there’s not a lot of transmission that would happen in a school setting,” Griffin said.

TB is a very slow-growing organism, and only about 10 percent of people infected with it develop the disease. Symptoms may include a cough that lasts more than three weeks, severe weight loss, intense night sweats, fever and chills, and coughing up blood.

TB typically is treated with antibiotics but can be fatal if left untreated. A blood test to screen for TB has replaced the old skin test and is more accurate, Griffin said.

This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Olathe Northwest High School student has tuberculosis."