The Regional Health Agency (ARS) said a case of contagious tuberculosis was reported on the university's Pasteur campus. There would be 70 contact cases, specify France 3 and BFM Normandie.
“A case of contagious tuberculosis has been reported in a person who attended the faculty of Rouen, in Seine-Maritime“, indicated Tuesday, November 19, the Regional Health Agency to France 3 Normandy. The patient would be a student from the Pasteur campus, according to media information. An investigation carried out by the department's Anti-Tuberculosis Center identified around sixty students and around ten teachers as contact cases, BFMTV confirmed.
A screening was offered to them: it “is based on carrying out a chest x-ray to be carried out now to look for tuberculosis disease, and on a blood test to be carried out at the beginning of January 2025 to identify possible latent forms“, specified the ARS to France 3 Normandie. The disease causes symptoms which can persist for several months.
Thousands of cases each year
Should we be worried about possible contagion? A priori, no. Tuberculosis is less transmissible than the flu or measles, explains the Ministry of Health. If it is a mainly respiratory disease – the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis most of the time affects the lungs – it takes eight or even ten hours of prolonged contact with a patient to catch tuberculosis. And again, this is not always the case.
While the disease can be fatal when left untreated, antibiotic treatment is available. It treats both forms of the disease, latent tuberculosis and contagious tuberculosis disease. In France, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 cases each year.
published on November 20 at 12:06 p.m., Alexis Gail, 6Medias
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