TB teacher infects 150 students

2009-3-25
MORE than 150 students and 20 teachers in northern Hebei Province school have been infected with pulmonary tuberculosis spread by a teacher.

Some parents have demanded compensation for their medical bills of 270 yuan (US$39.47) but the high school has refused to pay, Hebei Youth Daily reported today.

The school shouldn't pay the bill as the source of infection could not be confirmed, schoolmaster Wu Shengju said. However, the school will apply to the education authority for a subsidy.

Students in the third grade of the high school said their teacher often coughed and spat throughout the last semester. On February 6 the teacher told the school management by phone that he was suffering from TB.

The school arranged checkups for all the students in the two classrooms and found more than 40 students were infected. Further checkups showed another 106 students and more than 20 teachers had been infected but none of them had developed the full-blown disease. People infected with TB who have not developed the disease are not contagious.

All the infected students and teachers are back at school which now carries out routine disinfections throughout the campus.