TERRE HAUTE —
With all the scary diseases out there that can infect you or those close to you, people don’t think a lot about tuberculosis anymore — at least not in America. Once an infectious scourge on the population, modern medicine has made TB easily diagnosed and highly treatable.
But the disease is still out there. If left untreated, it can be fatal. The potential for TB infection is something to be taken very seriously.
That’s why we were pleased to see the aggressive response by county health and school officials to reports last week of an active case of TB at Woodrow Wilson Middle School.
On Tuesday, the Vigo County Health Department and the Vigo County School Corp. collaborated to organize and conduct a free TB testing clinic to screen students and adults who work at the school. It was no simple task, given that today is the last day of the school year.
As promptly and thoroughly as the effort was carried out, the response from the community has been equally impressive. About 700 students and staff were tested in the one-day clinic, out of a possible 1,000. The tests were voluntary, so to achieve such a high rate of participation shows that people took the threat seriously and were willing to react in a timely fashion.
Health officials said they were quite pleased with the response. They had expected to test only about half of those eligible.
We hope test results, which are expected to be completed and made available to students and staff today, will show no more cause for concern. But if some do, it will have been detected at a time when it can be dealt with effectively.
We applaud the health department, school corporation and all those involved in the testing for their reaction and response.
You can say that again
“We are always trying to get the word out regionally, nationally, as well as locally, so it’s nice to know that somebody noticed from far away.”
— Mary Kramer, Art Spaces executive director, commenting on recent recognition of Terre Haute’s outdoor sculpture project from Home and Away Magazine, a publication of AAA auto club
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