IRVINGTON, Ala. (WPMI) - More than 100 students and teachers at Pearl Haskew Elementary are required to undergo a tuberculosis test Wednesday after a third grade teacher tested positive last week.
The free testing is mandatory for all third grade students and teachers, but open to any student whose parent wants them tested. If third graders do not receive the testing in school, they wont be allowed to return to school until they're tested by a pediatrician.
The Mobile County Health Department will start testing at 8:30 a.m. at the school, and read results on Friday.
On Tuesday, health and school officials hosted a meeting in the school's auditorium to answer questions and concerns from parents.
Health officials believe the chances of anyone being infected by the teacher are very low.
"The test results we do have at this point, the likeliness of infectiousness was very, very low," Megan Finnigan with the Mobile County Health Department told parents.
Finnigan is the agency's tuberculosis program manager, and said they only way students would have been infected is if they had prolonged, close-quarters contact with the teacher while she was coughing, sneezing, singing, or yelling.
"They would have to be exposed for several hours, several times a week or a one-time exposure of eight hours or more," Finnigan said.
Superintendent Martha Peek told Local 15 the infected teacher is doing well, and she will hopefully make a full recovery.
Some parents told Local 15 they were concerned the school had not been sterilized or disinfected following the announcement, but Finnigan said it's unnecessary when dealing with tuberculosis. The school was inspected and found to be sufficiently clean and has an air filtration system fit for a hospital.
