By Rashad Rolle

Tribune Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

A SECURITY guard on Paradise Island has contracted tuberculosis and four others have been exposed to the disease. However, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands insisted there is no cause for widespread public alarm.

He explained that people are diagnosed with the disease regularly and this country follows strict guidelines when addressing health concerns related to it.

Dr Sands’ statement came as some staff over the bridge expressed concerns that health officials didn’t respond with adequate urgency after the “initial” case was diagnosed.

Paradise Island Tourism and Development Association (PITDA) confirmed that a case of TB was diagnosed in a statement to The Tribune, but stressed that security officers do not typically have contact with guests.

The statement said: “As soon as PITDA was alerted the public health department was advised and all the required public health protocols were initiated.”

PITDA said “security officers do not work in any of the hotels, on pool decks and around guest amenities on Paradise Island and do not generally have direct contact with guests. They are primarily deployed for patrols and station on the roads of Paradise Island.”

Although PITDA said it can’t confirm if there were additional active cases, Dr Sands confirmed that four additional people at Paradise Island have tested positive for exposure to TB since the “original” confirmed case.

However, he said: “There are no other ill patients at this point. Four patients have been shown to have positive mantoux tests. That does not mean that their possible exposure to TB happened with any contemporaneous timeline to (the first) case. All it means is that they at some point in their life have been exposed to TB. The matter is being investigated by the surveillance team at public health.” 

A security guard who spoke to The Tribune on the condition of anonymity said staff were informed in a mandatory meeting last Friday that they would be subjected to a mantoux test––the test for tuberculosis––this past Monday.

“Everyone was shocked to find out what the meeting was about,” the guard said.

“It got leaked that somebody employed had TB and the person has been back to work for about a month hanging around everybody.”

Test results were revealed to the staff on Wednesday. Staff then learned that four of them tested positive for exposure to the disease.

The guard said staff are concerned that not everyone took the mantoux test.

“About 20 of 80 people didn’t take the test,” the security guard said.

“Shouldn’t something like this be mandatory?”

“We have pregnant ladies here that’s very concerned. Staff is very worried.”

Dr Sands, nonetheless, aimed to assure Bahamians that the cases do not “warrant any uproar”.

“People are diagnosed with TB on a regular basis,” he said.

“We have a very effective surveillance programme in place and they are managed according to international guidelines. There is standard operating procedure. When we have a patient with TB as we do literally every week in the year, contacts are traced, homes are examined, the patients are started on therapy, whether inpatient or outpatient. For the most part it is a silent issue in the country. We don’t have a major problem with uncontrolled TB because the international guidelines for surveillance, monitoring and intervention are followed very rigidly.”

TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. It is an infectious disease that generally affects the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections do not have symptoms. 

If left untreated when it becomes active, the disease kills about half of those infected, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).