By Doug Oakley,
Bay Area News Group
Posted: 04/20/2009 02:11:41 PM PDT
Updated: 04/20/2009 03:11:16 PM PDT
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A UC Berkeley student remains in medical isolation at an area hospital with active tuberculosis as campus and city health workers begin testing of people who came in close contact with the person.
The student was diagnosed about 10 days ago with the potentially fatal bacterial disease that usually attacks the lungs, said Brad Buchman, medical director of the UC Berkeley University Health Services.
Although the city and the school will try to test over 200 people who may have come in contact with the student, Buchman stressed that the disease is very difficult to transmit.
Unlike the flu or chicken pox, which can live on surfaces like sinks and phones, tuberculosis requires very close contact with the infected person, he said.
"You have to cough in someone's face, and they have to inhale, and it can't be just one cough or one breath," Buchman said. "The public has a lot of questions, so the hardest thing for us is to control panic."
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