THE
three cases of tuberculosis (TB) reported this year at Bedok Town Secondary
School are separate incidents and the students could have got it anywhere, said
the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a media briefing yesterday.
"It was by coincidence that they were in
the same year and (from) the same school," Dr Jeffery Cutter, director of
MOH's communicable-diseases division, said.
In April, the school, which is located in
Bedok North Street 3, reported its first case of TB this year. The two other
cases were reported in July and last month.
Islandwide, the number of TB cases has risen,
with MOH notified of 2,791 new cases last year, compared to 2,517 new cases in
2009.
Last year, there were 1,478 cases among
Singapore residents - a slight rise from 1,442 in 2009. Comparatively, 1,313 TB
cases were reported among foreigners last year, a jump from 1,075 reported in
2009.
However, MOH has clarified that this is not a
cause for concern, as 763 of the foreigners here who had TB last year were
short-term visitors, such as rejected work-permit applicants and patients who
came here for TB treatment.
If those cases were discounted, then three
quarters of the total TB cases are among Singapore residents, while
non-residents make up the other quarter, said Dr Cutter.
The figures correspond to the population
breakdown, where three quarters are residents and one quarter are
non-residents.
Following the discovery of the third TB case
in Bedok Town Secondary School last month, 31 students and nine teachers were
identified to have been in prolonged close contact with the patient.
They will undergo a Mantoux skin test - which
is a diagnostic test for TB - after the O levels. As of the end of last month,
there were a total of 21 TB cases in secondary schools this year.
Professor Sonny Wang, head of the TB Control
Unit at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said that concerned parents need not send their
children for the Mantoux test if they have not been exposed to someone with TB
for a long period of time, as the test results might not be accurate.
"If you apply a test to a low-risk group
- in other words, where the prevalence of the condition is low in that group -
you will throw up more false positives. Positive results are more likely true,
when you test a high-risk group," explained Prof Wang.
According to the World Health Organization,
one third of the world's population is infected with the TB germ, but it
remains latent in most people with healthy immune systems, and only 5-10 per
cent of those affected will develop active TB disease later in life.
The bacteria is transmitted when an infected
person coughs or sneezes.
Unlike influenza, where illness occurs within
hours or days of infection, the TB germ can take months or years to develop.
Symptoms include chronic coughing, fatigue and chest pains.
Sophie Hong
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