Allegheny Co. Health Dept. Provides Tuberculosis, Measles Updates
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Allegheny County Health Department has been looking into cases of tuberculosis ever since a Pittsburgh Public School District student came down with the disease.
They provided an update on the situation today.
The screening involved nine nurses over the course of five days who made themselves available at South Hills 6-8 Middle School after a student was hospitalized in early February.
Testing was also offered to those at Brashear High School, which shares a campus.
"We ended up screening 640 individuals, including all the school children in the middle school, the faculty, those bus drivers who wanted to be screened and a subset of the high school families who also wanted to be screened," said Dr. Karen Hacker, of the Allegheny County Health Department.
Dr. Hacker says not all of the results are in, as the work is still in progress, but to date, there have been no new active cases identified.
The measles also remains contained despite concerns following an outbreak at Disneyland in California, which spread to more than 17 states.
Allegheny County had several measles cases last spring, but there has been no additional activity since then in large part, due to Allegheny County's high vaccination rate.
"Even at the kindergarten level, 91 percent of our kindergartners have completed mumps, measles and rubella vaccinations," said Dr. Hacker. "By seventh grade, we have 98 percent of our population that is vaccinated, which is an extremely high vaccination rate."
When looking at overall vaccinations, the countywide rate by seventh grade is 95 percent.
The Health Department is currently looking to see if there are any districts that have a higher proportion of under-vaccinated students, and if so, will work with that district.
Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter
