Official urges rule change for TB tests

Teachers, emergency personnel and day-care workers aren’t at a great enough risk for tuberculosis to be tested, the state Department of Health said Thursday.

To stop testing those people would require a change in the rules of the department. The rule change would go into effect Jan. 1, 2013, allowing the department to focus its resources on groups of people more likely to contract the disease, State Tuberculosis Control Officer Dr. Naveen Patil told lawmakers.

The House and Senate Committees on Public Health,Welfare and Labor reviewed the proposed change and sent it next to the Rules and Regulations Committee.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. It spreads through the air and can be fatal if not treated properly. It can be found through a blood or skin test. Treatment involves taking medication for six to 12 months.

The change would end mandatory testing of new teachers at public schools and kindergartens, emergency personnel, and employees at private or parochial schools, day-cares, outpatient drug or alcohol facilities or migrantworker centers.

Patil said it has been decades since a case of TB has been found in a worker in those facilities.

“We are unnecessarily testing all these populations that are at no risk,” Patil said. “They do not pose a threat. We have not seen cases in many of these groups in decades.”

In 2011 there were 85 active TB cases in Arkansas, department spokesman Ann Russell said.

Also in 2011, 43 of the state’s 75 counties had no TB cases and 15 counties had only one case. Most cases were foundin Pulaski and Washington counties. Almost all involved people born in other countries or the elderly, Russell said.

He said the department tests more than 100,000 people a year. Doctors and clinics also test people. The department figure does not include those tests, Patil said.

He said with so many tests there are often false positives and people are treated for TB when they do not have it. That unnecessary medicating builds a resistance to the drugs, making it more difficult to fight the disease in people who do have TB, he said.

“We just want to make sure we target the highest risk population,” Patil said.

Those still required to undergo annual TB testing are employees of hospitals and other medical facilities, prisons, homeless shelters and nursing homes. Inmates and people likely to stay in a homeless shelter for at least 14 days also have to be tested. Patil said foreign-born students who attend Arkansas universities also are tested.