Letters were being sent to parents of all 40,000 pupils within Leicester giving information about the disease and what symptoms to look out for. A total of 19 pupils have been diagnosed with TB since Monday. Three other pupils had been diagnosed over the previous eight months. In addition, three relatives of pupils, and four teachers have been diagnosed with the disease. Another 60 students strongly suspected of having been infected have been given antibiotics as a precautionary measure.
Experts say the disease is probably also at large in the wider community.
Infected people People most at risk are those who have come into contact with the infected pupils. Dr Monk said although people were being diagnosed with the disease, nobody was actually infectious. He said it was possible that they had been infected some time ago after exposure to one or two source cases. I must stress that all the students we have found are in the early stages of the disease, they are not an infectious risk. Dr Monk said it took up to four months for the disease to spread through the body tissue to the point where it posed a risk to other people.