27 People at Kansas High School Test Positive for Tuberculosis

More than two dozen people at a high school in Kansas have tested positive for tuberculosis.

After about 300 students and staff at the school were tested, 27 of them, or 8%, were found to be infected with TB, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

The large number of instances of TB comes less than two weeks after one student at the school tested positive for the illness.

“The number of individuals with TB infection does not exceed what we would anticipate in this setting,” said Lougene Marsh, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. “Of course, we had hoped we wouldn’t find any additional TB cases, but we knew this was a possibility.”

None of the individuals who tested positive are showing symptoms of TB, meaning they do not have the disease, Marsh said. They are undergoing treatment to ensure their infections do not become sick.

In 2012, Kansas reported 42 people contracted TB disease.