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Alex Cabrero reportingSome students at Snow College are waiting for test results to come back that will let them know what their futures will be like. This isn't a test where they're waiting for A's or B's. It's much more important. A lot of people are waiting for their phone to ring with good news. They are waiting to find out if two students and one teacher have tuberculosis (TB).
January days at Snow College pretty much look and feel the same, only the past few days have been very different.
One student said, "It's constantly on everybody's mind." Another student, Rashel Varela, said, "Yeah, there a lot of people who are talking about it, but what can you do?"
There's not much to do but sit and wait and hope their classmates and teacher don't have tuberculosis. "Everyone has been a little worried, but anyone who wants to be tested can go and get tested," said student Bryce Brinkman. He went to get tested for TB, and it was negative.
He said, "I don't know anyone who has had it, and they've been testing everyone, and it's been going good."
A couple of weeks ago, a student who finished her studies at Snow College went back home to Taiwan. On the plane ride home, she got sick. Doctors later told her she has tuberculosis, a potentially fatal disease.
The Centers for Disease Control got involved and told Snow College officials there's a chance she may have infected others at the Ephraim campus. Greg Dart, spokesman for Snow College, said, "There's been a lot of concern, and we've done everything we can to be out there and to actually tell people what's going on."
So far, some 450 students have been tested. Of those, 77 required more testing, and of those, only three came back with suspicious results. Those three, two students and one professor, have been quarantined until more results come back. Dart said, "We have yet to find any active TB on campus, and we don't expect to find any active TB on campus."
Test results are expected to come in tonight or sometime tomorrow.
Now those other 74 students who required additional testing, they're all taking antibiotics, just to be on the safe side.
