To help students better understand the bacterial infection tuberculosis, Dr. Albert White and Pam Barrett from the Alabama Department of Public Health came to UA Aug. 24 for an hour-long Q&A session.

“It’s our job to go around the state of Alabama, whether that be schools, prisons or hospitals to re-educate the public,” White said.

During the session, White explained that they were also here to screen students.

“We were informed about a student here who got sick back in the spring of 2015 and was thought to have Tuberculosis,” White said. “Though now they are out of state and are being treated, we wanted to follow up on those who may have been in contact with them.”

White said there were about 250 students who were thought to have been in contact with the student, but of the 250, 90 had left the state.

“We have the addresses of the 90 who have left already, and we’re going to contact them wherever they are so they can go to their local health department and be tested,” White said.

 The remaining 160 will have the opportunity to be tested on Aug. 25 at no cost.

“Not everyone who is exposed will get TB, so tomorrow we’re going to do a blood test, and if the blood test is positive that means they may have been exposed,” White said. “We’re not investigating an outbreak of TB, we just had one case and we’re working up the contacts of that case.”

Second year mechanical engineer graduate student Alexander Kandra came to the session to better inform himself about the risks of catching TB.

“I remember a guy constantly coughing in my class, and I received the email informing students of the blood test taking place, so I came today partly out of concern but also out of my own curiosity,” Kandra said. “I thought it was really helpful and educational.”

White explained that TB cases have decreased in the state of Alabama over the years.

“While years ago there were 300-400 cases a year, now we’re seeing on 6-7 cases,” White said.