The key facts
- Tuberculosis is transmitted by airborne droplets; prolonged contact in a poorly ventilated room is dangerous, not a fleeting encounter.
- Symptoms may be absent, so regular examinations are important: the Mantoux test, Diaskintest.
- BCG protects against severe forms but does not provide one hundred percent protection against infection.
The risk of infection depends on the conditions of contact
Phthisiatrician, deputy chief physician for outpatient and polyclinic work at the Moscow Regional Clinical Tuberculosis Dispensary (MOKPTD) Olga Baronova, in a conversation with Life.ru, explained whether a child can catch tuberculosis at school. According to her, such a probability exists, but not every contact with a sick person leads to infection. Tuberculosis is transmitted primarily through the air: a person with a contagious form of pulmonary disease may shed mycobacteria when coughing, talking or sneezing. It is especially risky to spend a long time with them in one closed, poorly ventilated room. A fleeting meeting in the corridor is significantly less dangerous than regular close contact.
Assessment of the outbreak and sources of infection
“If a case of tuberculosis is detected at school, it does not mean that the whole class has fallen ill. It is important to find out whether the person shed mycobacteria, how long they were in contact with the children and under what conditions. Based on the results of such an assessment, specialists determine who needs to be examined,” Baronova noted. The source of infection can be either a teenager or an adult, for example a school employee. At the same time, young children with tuberculosis are usually less contagious than adults due to the peculiarities of the course of the disease in them.
Symptoms may be absent
It is not always possible to notice the disease by appearance. Possible signs are a prolonged cough, weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss, elevated temperature and night sweats, but symptoms may be mild or absent. Therefore, the doctor emphasized, one should not wait for complaints to check the child. For early detection of infection, preventive examinations are carried out: depending on age, the Mantoux test, Diaskintest and other studies are used. A positive test result is not yet a diagnosis; the decision on additional examinations is made by a phthisiatrician.
What to do after contact and the role of BCG
If it turns out that a child has been in contact with a person sick with a contagious form of tuberculosis, parents should consult a doctor without waiting for a scheduled check-up: a specialist will assess the risk and, if necessary, prescribe an examination or preventive treatment. The BCG vaccine, usually administered in the maternity hospital, protects children primarily from severe forms of the disease, but does not provide one hundred percent protection against infection and does not replace examinations. Baronova also noted that tuberculosis is not a disease exclusively of socially disadvantaged families: anyone can encounter the infection. The main precautions are not to skip preventive check-ups, to see a doctor promptly after a known contact and to ventilate rooms.
Context
Earlier, Natalya Miropolskaya, associate professor at the Department of Polyclinic and Social Pediatrics of the INOPR of Pirogov University, stated that the emergence of the new tuberculosis strain EurA1.1 does not require Russians to get an unscheduled revaccination. According to her, vaccination does not solve the problem of drug resistance of the bacterium in a person who is already ill. It was also reported that phase III trials of the Gamaleya Center's vaccine against tuberculosis have been completed.
