By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH and education officials were called in at Garvin Tynes Primary School after an errant social media post suggested the school was concealing a tuberculosis outbreak, leading to mass panic among parents who showed up in droves to collect their children yesterday.
The fears prompted Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands to hold a press conference to dispel misinformation about the spread of TB.
Dr Sands said preliminary results of recent screening at Garvin Tynes indicate that 38 students have tested negative; 46 teachers have been tested with two positive, 40 negative and two results not yet read; 12 parents tested with one positive, 10 negative and one not yet read; and 22 in administration and support staff tested with three positive.
“I assure the public that the staff from the Ministry of Health will complete the screening exercise at Garvin Tynes Primary School and those students, teachers, administrators and support staff who test positive will be given additional tests as needed to determine whether they have the disease,” Dr Sands said yesterday. “It is therefore critical for students to participate in the screening programme.”
Over the course of four hours at the school, parents and various members of staff could be seen arguing near the entrance of the school’s compound.
Those engaged by reporters claimed they were made aware of the issue by hearsay reports, and when they showed up to the school, heard varying claims from administrators.
Several parents said they were told a second-grade student was being treated in hospital for TB.
They said they heard as a result of that reported case, students enrolled in the same class, all teachers and all support staff were subsequently tested for TB.
The parents said the circumstances were not made public immediately, and that some children were tested without the consent of their parents.
Ultimately, police, health officials, Dr Sands and Minister of Education Jeff Lloyd were called in to help de-escalate tensions.
Most parents were restricted from removing their children from the school, but were invited to sit through a meeting with school and government officials.
Following that meeting, Dr Sands addressed reporters outside of the school, where he dismissed the social media reports as “fake news” and clarified the specifics of the issue.
According to Dr Sands, public health officials have commenced screenings of people at the school after a possible case was identified.
The Elizabeth MP insisted that no one at the school, child or adult, has, to date, tested positive for TB.
“For the record, there is no outbreak of TB at Garvin Tynes Primary,” he said, calling the “hysteria” that ensued yesterday, unwarranted.
Dr Sands said: “As occurred at R M Bailey and other places, there is a possible case of a student at Garvin Tynes and what we are doing is a routine public health screening of children and teachers and staff to determine whether or not anybody has been exposed to tuberculosis.”
He added: “So it was R M Bailey, it was the detention centre, Eleuthera; you had the issues in Exuma (and) I expect next week, next month, we will have other places.”
There has been much public concern regarding TB in recent months as accounts have surfaced of hundreds of individuals being exposed to the disease. However, Dr Sands has been steadfast that these reports are no cause for alarm.
Addressing the recent uptick in screenings and confirmed exposure yesterday, Dr Sands maintained that the Bahamas, when compared to many of its regional counterparts, has managed to keep its rates of TB extremely low.
He said: “In most places across the world you could have instances as high as 30, 40, 50 per cent; the Bahamas is way down as one per cent. We want to keep it that way. But in order to keep it that way, we have to do aggressive public health screenings.
“So if we identify a test case or a suspicious case, our nurses are in the street; they are going into your church, they are coming into your school, they are coming in to your home to interview people, to examine them, to make sure that the public is safe.
“These are quiet warriors, they are out there doing what they have to do and this is what was happening here.
“Unfortunately, somebody is sending out the fake news that, oh, there is an outbreak of TB, which there isn’t.”
Dr Sands also noted that in cases similar to the one seen at Garvin Tynes, public health officials are permitted to test a minor without the permission from their parents. He said in circumstances like the one seen, by law, overall public health supersedes the need for a request and subsequent authorisation of a parent.
Dr Sands said: “In general, we will get permission from the parent to test, but the laws allow testing without consent. Okay, so, for informational purposes and educational purposes so that everyone is on the same page, yes, we would in general ask permission.”
He added: “…. But the law permits, for maintaining the public’s health, that you can do what is necessary to ensure the public’s safety. And that means testing for infectious diseases.”
Nonetheless, Dr Sands did issue an apology to any parent whose child may have been tested without permission.
Last month health officials screened more than 3,000 residents in Eleuthera for TB.
Of the lot, approximately 100 persons were confirmed to have been exposed to TB. Further to that, of the 100, only four were categorised as active cases, meaning at risk to transmit the disease.
Comments
DDK 6 years, 2 months ago
Are we concerned about the root of the tuberculosis which is becoming just a bit to common in a country which has been largely TB-free? I wonder that Dr. Sands does not fear the contagion of the potentially deadly disease at health-care facilities around the country. As we now seem to have such a large percentage of our population that is illiterate and uniformed, the 3% exposure in those screened in Eleuthera may be the tip of the iceberg.
Sickened 6 years, 2 months ago
Are we concerned that your boy can't add???
46 teachers have been tested... with 2 positive, 40 negative and 2 results not yet read = 44 I guess its close enough though.
joeblow 6 years, 2 months ago
Just round down to the nearest even number!
joeblow 6 years, 2 months ago
shanty towns, crime and this ...another gift from our neighbors in the south!
SP 6 years, 2 months ago
Dr. Sands refuses to publically acknowledge that TB was introduced and is being spread by Haitians!
Typical of government to keep this serious problem under wraps so as not to stigmatize the Haitian community, however, I have it on very good senior hospital staff authority that this TB problem is an "epidemic" transmitted from the Haitian community.
Everything will be fully exposed in the fullness of time.
MassExodus 6 years, 2 months ago
Of course it has been spread from Haiti.
This is the same damn reason why Shanty towns, and illegal immigrants need to be dealt with seriously. When you introduce another culture (Chinese, Haitian, etc.) What do you expect? Chinese will live 6-10 people in a 800-1000sq foot apartment. Haitians will live in the bush in 'Shanty Towns' with illegal buildings too close together, no running water, completely filthy compared to even lower-level Bahamians.
All the undeducated Bahamians ignorants will defend immigrants saying things like 'they are people too,' and when there is CDC outbreak declared in the Bahamas and your little child dies of TB don't come crying and complaining.
Illegal immigrants are destroying this country. Further if they are legal, they have to live by the laws of this damn country, NOT bring their Chinese or Haitian or whatever other country, ways in and blatantly disregard and disrespect us and our country.
Wake up!!! This is a very serious problem. Haitians are a major cause of crime, illegal activities, and disease. That is just a simple fact.
TheMadHatter 6 years, 2 months ago
"Dr Sands said preliminary results of recent screening at Garvin Tynes indicate that 38 students have tested negative; 46 teachers have been tested with two positive, 40 negative and two results not yet read; 12 parents tested with one positive, 10 negative and one not yet read; and 22 in administration and support staff tested with three positive."
Doing the math there, I get a potential 9 (NINE) persons who either do or may have TB. (2 positive and 2 no-result in the teachers group, 1 positive & 1 no-result in the parents group, 3 positive in the admin group). The total number in that sampling group is 38+46+12 = 95 AND 9 out of 95 = 9.5% or approximately 10%. You must also use caution in that "parents" group - because you know sometimes it is not "possible" to actually get in touch with some of them (LOL).
If 10% of a population have TB (tuberculosis) - that is a serious problem in my opinion.
The simple fact though is that not enough people have died of TB (yet) and not enough people have been shot dead by bullets (yet) and not enough travel warnings have been issued (yet).
Stay tuned though. There is only so long that people can do fool, before the fruits of their "labour" are ready to eat, and the sour taste is impossible to ignore. In Abaco, government is already busy actively removing the "rubble" from the fire - so that there will be nothing standing in the way of renewed fresh building activity. If YOUR house should burn down, will government send a free tractor to clear your rubble?
ohdrap4 6 years, 2 months ago
when people test positive they have to take another test as the mantoux test has many false positives.
they did not say confirmed cases, just positive tests.
What they should do is preventative screenings of all schools nationwide, and vaccinate those in higher risk populations.
TheMadHatter 6 years, 2 months ago
Good points. What we should also do is send ten staff from Min of Health to live in Haiti for 2 months and learn how to survive and indeed maintain a population of 12 million while faced with every sanitary obstacle and nutrient shortage. When they return they can give ongoing seminars teaching their fellow Bahamians how to prepare for our politically-correct, "multi-cultural" future.
ohdrap4 6 years, 2 months ago
in the early 1990s, a member of the defence force who had been sent to haiti came back home sick.
he became so severely ill they gave him him chemotherapy. he died.
the autopsy revealed he had malaria.
Malaria!!! whoever it was at PMH did not even consider it.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 2 months ago
Soooooo, where is this TB strain endemic to???? ........ Down South again?????
This is like Pharaoh and the Ten Plagues with the Haitians, DRs, and others in the Caribbean and Latin America who come here legally or illegally ....... and it is costing us BIG TIME.
SP 6 years, 2 months ago
Haiti has the highest rate of tuberculosis in the Americas
http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-205...">http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-205...
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacn93...">http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pdacn93...
Now we all know what Dr. Duane Sands somehow forgot to mention!
Giordano 6 years, 2 months ago
What a surprise,we have shanties town here under inhumane condition with "outside toilet" ,swampy nearby and no running potable water, full of unprotected,bad nurtured children expose to marijuana smoke and alcohol with the village hiding newly arrived illegal immigrants coming from Haiti where TB is very common,full of dogs, and garbage all over the place beside illegal electrical connections or lended electric cord from a nearby house also builded out of all construction rules. Come on!. What to expect with this type of scenarios. Two wrong don't make a right. Depression,hunger,nani breath,TB and many other things are camping in the mind,soul and body of those humans inhabitants that by the way,many of them born here in The Bahamas.
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