A student and Harnwell College House resident has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, leading University officials to take safety precautions and notify fellow residents.
Experts, however, agree that risk of widespread infection on campus remains low.
According to Evelyn Wiener, director of Student Health Services, officials have already identified and contacted those students who they consider to be at risk of contracting the disease, such as the student's close friends and classmates. These students have been tested for the disease but have all shown negative results.
The speed at which the body reacts to the infection and begins to produce antibodies, however, varies. As a result, a follow-up test will be performed on those students in 12 weeks to ensure a clean bill of health.
Tuberculosis, in its active form, is characterized by fever, drenching night sweats, weight loss and chronic cough accompanied by phlegm that may or may not contain blood, among other symptoms.
"The approach here is to investigate rings of contacts around the source case," said Patrick Brennan, a physician who specializes in infectious diseases and directs the Philadelphia Tuberculosis Control Program. "We start with the source and work out from the source."
If this first group of individuals, who Wiener emphasized had been chosen due to "hours upon hours" of contact with the infected student, were to show a positive reaction in their follow-up skin test, a secondary ring of students would be called in for testing. This next group, Wiener said, would probably include students living on the floor of the infected student, as well as those on floors above and below.
Brennan added that it is not possible to tell from the diagnostic skin tests who the infection was passed from.
David Brownlee, Harnwell College House faculty master and Art History Department chairman sent an e-mail to the more than 700 residents of the building on Sunday night to alert them to the situation.
"We have dealt with the real problem of the people who are sick and are now educating the remaining population who are starting to learn about the situation," Brownlee said. The e-mail was "just a matter of public information."
He added that there was "little response" to the e-mail, and only a dozen or so students attended the educational meetings that were held in Harnwell last night.
"I don't think we are seeing concern by students," Brownlee said.
Administrators have also advised students to remain calm regarding the circumstances.
"There is no reason to think there is anything out of control," Brennan said. "This is a very typical situation. There is no reason for alarm."
"It is not easy to get," he added. "You have to spend a lot of time with the person who has TB. You have to have close contact, [and the person infected has] to be very contagious."
"I am very confident," Brownlee said. "I am very, very confident. First of all, this is not a difficult or complicated situation, and it is being handled very, very well by Penn's Student Health Services."
Student Health Services no longer requires students to undergo a tuberculosis skin test before matriculating. Since fall 2001, University policy has stipulated that only students who plan to enter health professions, have done volunteer work with populations likely to carry the disease, are from countries where the disease is more prevalent or are at an increased health risk must be tested.
Tuberculosis is spread through the air by a cough, shout or sneeze from an infected person. Although infection technically takes place when the bacteria enters someone's lungs, the germs can either lay dormant indefinitely or the infection can become active.
At that point, chest X-rays are performed that, if negative, lead doctors to prescribe preventative treatment that must be taken for nine months. Although the bacteria continue to live in the body, the treatment reduces the chance of the infection becoming a disease.
If it is determined that the infection has already progressed to the disease stage -- which, Brennan said, only happens in about 10 percent of cases -- the patient must be isolated for about a two-week period or until he or she is no longer considered contagious. Medication must also be taken for the following six months.
He added that treatment is able to cure the disease in 98 percent of cases on the first try.
The number of instances of the disease in Philadelphia is routinely small -- last year, 147 cases were documented, Brennan said.
However, because many of the symptoms are common to other, less serious illnesses, such as the flu or the common cold, combined with the general reluctance of students to seek medical help, diagnoses may be protracted.
"There wouldn't be anything, in many cases, that would differentiate it from other cases," Brennan said.
Both Brennan and Wiener say that there are one or two documented cases of tuberculosis at Penn every year. The difference with this case is that the infected person lives in a communal residence facility.
"It is a little difficult in Harnwell since it is group living, but we are comfortable at this point at reassuring everybody," Wiener said.
According to Brennan, who has spoken to Harnwell building engineers, the air circulation system in the building is such that individual rooms do not receive circulated air.
"Air is circulated in the building, but not in the rooms, only in the hallways," Brennan said. "Also, the circulated air is mixed with outside air that would dilute the concentration of germs."
Although Wiener and the rest of Student Health are not recommending that students rush to be tested, she said that anyone who is concerned can make an appointment with Student Health.
Due to confidentiality of medical records, the name of the student cannot be released.
