DUMAS, TEXAS -- Dumas Intermediate School may have a case of tuberculosis on their hands.
"There's a possibility that we have a student that tested positive of TB, but we do not know that for a fact," said Mark Stroebel Dumas Superintendent. "We're working with the State Health Department."
That suspicion was enough for Dumas Intermediate School to take action.
"We'll be on site at Dumas Intermediate School on Tuesday to conduct some screenings of some students there," said Chris Van Dusen Texas Department of Health Services Spokesman.
Letters from the school were sent to about 100 students and staff whom the State Department of Health Services is preparing to screen.
"It's a skin test that we do, there are little pieces of material that's put under the skin with a needle and then 2-3 days later we come back and read it," said Van Dusen.
Officials said that essentially there are two types of tuberculosis, latent and active.
Latent means the bacteria is in your lungs, but you won't show symptoms and you can't pass it to another person.
Active, means the bacteria is growing and makes you contagious.
"Tuberculosis is not something that we consider highly contagious it's not as contagious even as the flu or cold. It takes really prolonged contact in close space for one person to spread the infection to another," said Van Dusen.
Officials said that the screenings on Tuesday are just a precaution, but if positive TB cases are discovered, the infection is easily treated with antibiotics.
