So far 35 have tested positive, although none are contagious. Starting in January, children enrolling in local daycare programs will undergo mandatory tuberculosis testing. The beefed-up screening program will help local health officials treat patients before the bacteria develops into the infectious disease, said Dr. Ed Ellis, associate medical officer of health for the region. Last year, there were 64 reported cases of TB, which is readily treatable with antibiotics. Only a person with active TB is at risk of spreading it through the air.
Most people develop the disease in the lungs and it eats away at the organs.
At least 35 people have contracted a deadly strain of tuberculosis spread by a Caribbean man and a woman who lived with him, medical officials confirmed yesterday. Hamilton and provincial health officials are calling on the federal government to investigate how the man slipped through the health-screening process when he immigrated to Canada. The woman became infected with the same strain of TB in February. Over the past year, the two have come in close contact with more than 1,000 people in Norfolk, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, Hamilton-Wentworth and Toronto. None of the 35 are contagious and are being treated with two types of antibiotics for six to 12 months.