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TB scare at MMU

14/07/2008

Health officials are urging more than 170 former Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) students to get screened for tuberculosis (TB).

Experts acted after a former textiles student, who graduated last summer, was diagnosed with the infectious disease.

So far, three more active cases and 14 cases of latent infection have been discovered. One member of staff at MMU has been identified as having possible TB.

Dr Erika Duffell, from the Health Protection Agency, urged people not to panic.

"To be at risk, one must usually spend hours in close contact with someone who has active disease, is infectious and has a cough," she explained.

TB is a bacterial infection that usually affects the lungs, with around 8,000 cases reported in England and Wales every year.

Although the disease can be fatal, TB is treatable and the majority of patients in developed countries make a full recovery.