LOUGHTON: College criticised over TB scare

3:28pm Tuesday 8th July 2008

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ANGRY parents have slammed Epping Forest College as being "too secretive" after they were not alerted to a Tuberculosis scare for almost two months.

The parents of a student, who do not wish to be identified, received a letter dated July 2 from staff informing them of the cases, in May.

The Loughton mother said they had received "next to no information" about the outbreak and criticised the college for telling them on the last day of term.

She said: "They've told us he (her son) will receive free chest screening, but we have heard nothing since."

She added: "This is a public health issue, they could be sending infected children home to spend the holidays with their parents, we really feel very let down by the whole situation."

Tuberculosis can be spread by coughing or sneezing and while the number of cases in Britain has dropped dramatically since the 1950s, if left untreated it can prove to be fatal.

The college's health and welfare advisor, Sallyann Harries, confirmed there had been two separate cases of Tuberculosis at the Borders Lane site, but denied students could transmit the disease.

She said: "It's an isolated incident. We've been working with the Health Protection Agency as soon as we became aware of these cases. Any students that have been identified as having close contact with the infected students will be offered a screening test at the local hospital."

Sh added the two students were removed from the college immediately and there was no need to tell parents because "at that point there was nothing to inform them of at that point."

In a letter to parents, she said: "TB is generally not very infectious and is not easily transmittable, a prolonged period of exposure with an infected person is required for any risk of transmission to occur."

The father, who also did not want to be named, said: "It's very concerning that the college didn't bother to tell us anything about this until the last possible minute, especially when you consider one of the infected pupils is in my son's class."

A Health Protection Agency spokesman said the college had raised the alarm as soon as students exhibited signs.

"The Health Protection Agency's Essex Health Protection Unit has been working with West Essex Primary Care Trust and staff from Epping Forest College to identify the close contacts of two patients with TB. These patients are no longer infectious. These are isolated cases and this is not an outbreak, although the risk of catching the disease is low."

The parent criticised the delay, saying: "TB still kills people around the world everyday, I really think we have a right to know if our children are at risk as soon as possible."