Active TB Case Reported at Second Riverside County High School

Forty-five students tested positive for possible exposure to tuberculosis at Indio High School, where a student was diagnosed with active TB earlier this month, county health officials said today, prompting an expansion of testing at the campus.

This marks the second time this fall that a Riverside County high school student has been diagnosed with the condition. On Oct. 31, it was announced that a Vista Murrieta High School student had an active case of TB.

As was the case with Vista Murrieta, the initial Indio High School student's diagnosis prompted Riverside County Department of Public Health officials to begin screenings of students believed to have been most at risk of exposure.

Of the 131 Indio High School students tested, 45 showed positive signs of possible exposure to the illness, health officials said.

Follow-up X-rays conducted today identified five students who require further examination, health officials said.

In response, health officials said today testing would be expanded to all Indio High School students and staff.

Despite the expansion, county Public Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said the risk of infection remains low, and the increased testing was being ordered as a precautionary measure.

A testing clinic for Indio High School’s 1,800 students and staff will be conducted at the campus Friday.

Following an on-campus clinic held in November at Vista Murrieta during which 250 students and staff at risk of exposure were tested, a district official said eight had positive skin tests.

“All of their chest X-rays were negative,” said Karen Parris, spokeswoman for the Murrieta Valley Unified School District. "There will be another clinic in January to re-test everyone who tested negative to make sure they are still negative."

Prior to the Vista Murrieta and Indio cases, the most recent Riverside County case involving a public school student was during the 2012-2013 school year at Vista del Lago in Moreno Valley, Riverside County Department of Public Health Director of Disease Control Barbara Cole previously told Patch.

In 2010, the county lifted a mandate that students who enroll in public schools provide evidence of a negative TB skin test. 

“It was not effective,” Cole previously told Patch. “Even though we were identifying people who had a latent skin test, we weren’t really finding active disease through that process. But we still monitor and follow up quickly with any reports from doctors or laboratories.”

—City News Service and Maggie Avants contributed to this report.