A large number of people have been exposed to Tuberculosis (TB) in Eleuthera.  At last count, health officials had gotten through roughly 2,000 people with 235 confirmed TB cases on that island.

Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands said, “what we have found thus far is that more than 100 persons in that screening have positive mantoux tests and some of those persons with positive mantoux tests have suspicious chest x-rays.”

He said that suspicious x-rays does not mean TB, but it’s more likely to be an active case.

The number of suspicious cases is at 25.

The process has not yet started in Exuma and the Health Minister stressed that there’s really no cause for alarm.

“When we talk about these diseases, there is no need to panic, but instead educate yourself. We are happy to repeat the message and state it in a way that if you don’t understand, it we’ll say it again or we’ll say it differently; so people will understand, but there’s no reason to panic,” Sands said.

He added that there is nothing can be done specifically to prevent exposure except live in a bubble.

The number of active cases of tuberculosis on the R .M.Bailey High school campus is now confirmed to be at 10.

Dr.Sands said about 400 people have been screened and of that figure, 110 are the school’s staff and teachers and the remainder – students.

“Thus far, eight teachers and staff members have had positive tuberculin skin tests and two students have had positive tests thus far. We still have a significant number of students to test and finalize the readings of the skin tests on those that were screened after,”  said the Minister.

According to Education Minister, Jeffrey Lloyd, R.M. Bailey’s increased TB cases has led to a thorough cleaning of the Robinson Road school.

“There will be no classes until such time as that cleansing and that sanitizing is completed,” Lloyd said.

The Minister said the cleansing should have been done by today, the latest,  in an  effort to get the school back to a state of normalcy as the children are preparing for exams.

“At the same time the school has to be a safe and an enhanced learning environment. The staff  is  concerned and they have a right to be in the circumstance,” Lloyd said.

He added that there’s no estimated figure of how much that deep cleaning will cost.

As many as one third of the world’s population or 2.7 billion people are infected with tuberculosis. Last year, there were more than 10 million cases of active TB, resulting in 1.3 million deaths.