Ten more people have tested positive for TB infection at George Bush High School in Fort Bend County.
This is the second time in three months the bacterial infection has been discovered in students at the school.
Hundreds of students and staff members coming to George Bush High School this year had to be tested.
Wednesday local media reporters learned 10 more people tested positive for the infection during the second round of testing.
The Fort Bend County Health Department says those 10 people are now being treated for exposure to TB and they are allowed to attended classes because they have been deemed not a health risk.
You may recall, it was June when TB testing at the school found 10 others who had been infected with TB.
Those people are taking medication as well.
The school was shut down over the summer and health officials say that if there is an area with the bacteria that if it is isolated for five days the bacteria will no longer be present.
So, it is possible the infected people were exposed to TB somewhere else.
There are about a dozen people who have yet to be tested for TB exposure who were supposed attend school at George Bush High School but have not been allowed on campus until they have taken the test.
Meanwhile, those who are infected have to take a battery of medicine to keep from developing full blown TB.
They could be taking that medicine from three months to two years.
While it sounds very scary, a positive test does not mean that the person is ill with active TB disease. It means that they have been exposed to the bacteria and are infected. They still may never develop TB and cannot spread the disease with only having a positive test for infection.
The health department is monitoring those who tested positive and wants to get those others who did not get tested into their clinics to make sure they too have not been infected.
The first day of school in Fort Bend County ISD was on Monday.
