Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1114063
10 UCW MAY 8-14, 2019 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM e Cumberland County Depart- ment of Public Health has been noti- fied by the state that a local individual thought to have been infected with tuberculosis did not in fact have TB. Parents, faculty and staff at Village Christian Academy were so advised in late April. e Cumberland County Health Department received updated information and a recommendation from the Public Health Division of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services about a TB contact investigation conducted in February. Some individuals at the school were be- lieved to have been exposed to a case of infectious tuberculosis. An investigation conducted by the state revealed that the individual was not infected. e determination was made just as a scheduled second round of testing was to begin. Initial positive lab tests needed to be confirmed by growing the TB germ in culture, which can take six weeks from the time a speci- men has been collected. None of the specimens collected, including the specimen that had the initial positive test, have grown the TB germ. "We are notifying everyone that a second round of testing is not needed, based on results received from the state lab," said Cumberland County Interim Health Director Duane Holder. "e contact investigation and first round of skin testing was the best course of action to protect potentially exposed students, faculty and staff," he said. "e Health Department acted ac- cording to state protocol … we had to wait six weeks for the culture results from the state lab." Consumption, or the White Plague, as TB was once known, has been around since the dawn of man. In 2014, a DNA study of a tuberculosis genome recon- structed from remains in southern Peru suggested that human tuberculosis is less than 6,000 years old. But there is evidence that the first tuberculosis in- fection happened about 9,000 years ago. By the 1960s, industrialized nations were seeing the health benefits of economic improvement, better sanita- tion, more widespread education and particularly the establishment of public health practices for tuberculosis con- trol. e rate of deaths from tuberculo- sis in England and Wales dropped from 190 per 100,000 population in 1900 to seven per 100,000 in the early 1960s. In the United States during the same pe- riod, it dropped from 194 per 100,000 to approximately six per 100,000. In the popular mind, tuberculosis was then a disease of the past. However, in the mid-1980s, the number of deaths caused by TB began to rise again in developed countries. e disease's resurgence was attrib- uted in part to increased immigration of people from regions where tuber- culosis was prevalent, and the spread of HIV. In the early 2000s, as a result of the rapid implementation of global efforts to combat the disease, the inci- dence rates stabilized. Globally today, the mortality rate from tuberculosis remains between 1.6 million and two million deaths per year. Anyone with questions about TB testing should con- tact the Cumberland County Health Department at 910-433-3638 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuberculosis scare a false alarm by JEFF THOMPSON NEWS A local individual thought to have been infected with tuberculosis did not in fact have TB. Fayetteville Kiwanis 68 th Annual Talent Night Showcase Auditions 1 st , 2 nd , & 3 rd Place Winners June 8, 2019 • 7PM • Tickets $8 To Register: www.fayettevillekiwanis.org/talent or pick up an application at Wendy's Restaurants or Rocket Fizz at Market Fair Shopping Center or from your music or dance instructor. Categories: Pre-school - 2nd Grade 6th-8th Grade* 3rd - 5th Grade 9th-12th Grade* (All proceeds going to local Kiwanis projects for children in Cumberland County) Performances to be held at www.upandcomingweekly.com of Cumberland County www.kidsvillenews.com/cumberland *New Classical Divisions Win $2,000 in cash, trophies & scholarships Special thanks to: Kyle & Ann Sims Richard Bryant th Singers Dancers & Musicians 2019 2 May 18