TB screening is underway at a secondary school in Cork after a pupil was diagnosed with the highly infectious condition.<\/p>\n
The screening of staff and students at Col\u00e1iste \u00c9amann R\u00eds, Deerpark Cork city was started as a \u201cprecautionary measure” for the airborne disease which is generally spread through coughing and sneezing.<\/p>\n
Sixth year students are understood to have all been screened so far.<\/p>\n
Principle Aaron Wolfe told The Echo: \u201cStaff and pupils are being screened for TB, but this is more a precautionary measure than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything necessary is being done and the health authorities have been informed and are being fully supportive to us at this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are guided by them as to how to deal with this situation but other than that, there is nothing more I am able to say at this point.\u201d\u00a0\u200b<\/p>\n
A HSE spokesperson said in a statement: \u201cThe Department of Public Health HSE South West confirms that it has been notified of a case of tuberculosis (TB) linked to a school in the south-west region.”<\/p>\n
It said that screening of close contacts is under way, in line with national and international guidance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis screening will allow for anyone who may have been infected to be identified in a timely manner and offered preventive treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will reduce their risk of developing active disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are liaising very closely with the principal. All students and staff could return to school for the start of term as planned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Health has also been asked for a comment.<\/p>\n
TB in Irish schools is rare.<\/p>\n
One of the last times it was found in school children in the Republic of Ireland was in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then two students at the same secondary school, Glanmire Community College in Cork, were diagnosed with TB.<\/p>\n
TB incidence plateaued in the republic last year and is, according to HSE\u2019s Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), comparable with 2015 levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, the number of cases reported in 2025 exceeded the projected number of cases required to achieve the \u201cEnd TB\u201d target, and paediatric TB rates \u201cremain elevated\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last year, there were 285 TB notifications to the HSE, down from 288 in 2024, but up from 203 in 2021.<\/p>\n
According to the HPSC, tuberculosis or TB is a preventable curable disease.<\/p>\n
It is caused by a bacterium (germ) called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.<\/p>\n
It usually affects the lungs but it can also affect other parts of the body, including the glands, the bones and rarely the brain.<\/p>\n
Symptoms of TB can include fever and night sweats, a cough lasting more than three weeks, weight loss and blood in their phlegm.<\/p>\n
Anybody with any of these symptoms should visit their GP.<\/p>\n
TB is usually spread in the air from another person who has TB of the lungs.<\/p>\n
It is spread by that person coughing, sneezing or spitting.<\/p>\n
Children have a greater chance of becoming ill with TB, if exposed to it, as are elderly people, people with diabetes and people in overcrowded and poor housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TB screening is underway at a secondary school in Cork after a pupil was diagnosed with the highly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[33970,835,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-610287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-health-body","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}