TB Diagnosis Causes Concern On Metro State University Campus

DENVER (CBS4)- One person at Metro State University of Denver has been diagnosed with infectious tuberculosis. That has caused some concerns about TB on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver.

Denver Health could not say if the person infected is a student or faculty member, but this person is receiving treatment and is no longer on campus.

Doctors say the person diagnosed at MSU is feeling better, but there's a chance that person could have infected other people.

The University has notified around 150 students and faculty members who may have been exposed during the last few months. Health officials don't anticipate they'll have active TB.

MSU along with health officials confirmed the TB case three weeks ago, but a majority of the campus only found out Monday.

"They probably should've let everybody know while we were here in school and on campus when everybody's in full attendance, not during spring break. Not a lot of people are paying attention right now." Nohemi Davis, a student at MSU.

"I think the university handled it well. I was a little bit curious on why it took them so long because the incident happened three weeks ago, why it took 'em so long to come and present us with the information," said Isaac Banks, a senior at MSU.

Banks is studying Public Relations at MSU. He was literally taking notes alongside media during Tuesday's news conference and had the chance to learn more about the delay in information.

"He explained the process and why it took them so long and why they are just now doing it," said Banks.

Students and faculty are urged to check their email and voicemail to ensure they are not one of the individuals recommended for testing.

CBS4's Tori Mason asked Denver Public Health experts if the infected person is known to frequent other places in the area and their answer so far is "no." They'll start looking into more locations if enough of the 150 people tested come up positive for TB.

"The number of people infected with latent TB in Colorado is estimated to be around three to five percent. It wouldn't surprise us at all if in 150 students we find a couple of kids who are positive. On the other hand if we find 10-15 kids who have a positive test, then we're going to assume some transmission took place in the school," said Dr. David Cohn, former director of the TB clinic at Denver Public Health.

Banks listened to Cohn as he explained the tedious process of a "contact investigation."

"We figure out who that person with tuberculosis may have exposed because TB can be spread through the air. So the first thing we do is we start with the family as part of the contact investigation and decide if anybody in the family who are close contacts of that person probably have been exposed to that person for weeks or months with active TB to see if there's any infection within the family. And then the next thing we do as part of the contact investigation is we the go ahead and look at other potential contacts. In the case of this person who was on campus, that person came in contact with both students and faculty on campus," Cohn said.

Banks also believes there was a secondary reason they didn't inform students until Tuesday.

"I'm assuming too they didn't want freak everybody out by saying, 'Hey, by the way, there's an outbreak of TB on the campus. Have fun before you go on Spring Break! Have fun!' So I think they handled it well."

Health officials say students and faculty generally do not need to be worried.

While Tuberculosis is not common in Colorado, Denver Health says this case at MSU is completely unrelated to the TB recently diagnosed at Aurora Hills Middle School. Health officials said it wasn't a TB outbreak at the school and some students and staff were tested.