2023-10-03 21:26:09
Several cases of tuberculosis have been discovered in recent months in the Lille student environment, reveal our colleagues from The voice of the North. If cases do exist, there is nothing to confirm that an epidemic is in progress, indicate the student associations or unions, the University of Lille or the ARS Hauts-de-France.
At the end of September, on social networks, a Lille doctor called out the ARS Hauts-de-France. He explains that “several general practitioners in Lille” are requesting information on “possible” epidemics of tuberculosis in the Lille student environment and have been doing so “for several months”.
Tuberculosis has not completely disappeared. According to the ARS Hauts-de-France, there are between 100 and 150 cases each year in the North. In November 2022, cases were detected in a high school in Roubaix, triggering the right of withdrawal of teachers.
Among student associations or unions contacted by The voice of the North, no one has heard of this “epidemic”. “After contacting the faculties, medical student associations or even general medicine interns, nothing comes out of this rumor and no case seems to exist,” tells us the Group of Lille Student Associations (Galillé). “No student came to see us regarding tuberculosis,” continues the student union federation (FSE).
Contacted, the University of Lille confirms that “there is no epidemic phenomenon today”. But “as every year, cases are or will be reported to us and investigations are or will be carried out in collaboration with the tuberculosis control centers concerned”. For example, she indicates that a case was identified “before summer” in a sector, and that it led to the organization of “two full days of screening”, repeated last Thursday and Friday.
According to the University of Lille, another massive screening is underway “in another establishment in the Lille metropolis” and would concern more than 1,000 students. And being screened obviously does not mean being a carrier of tuberculosis.
Symptoms
Asked regarding this rumor of an epidemic in the Lille student environment, the ARS Hauts-de-France provided a detailed response to The voice of the North. She first recalls that this infectious disease “is transmitted from person to person by air via secretions emitted (coughs, spit, etc.) by a contagious person”.
There are two forms of tuberculosis: that with symptoms, which can be contagious, and that called ” latent “. In the latter case, the patients are not contagious but “ the disease generally appears around 2 years following infection, or even several years later for some people », Explains the ARS.
To transmit tuberculosis, prolonged contact with a patient is required, estimated between 8 hours and 40 hours depending on the intensity of the symptoms. According to the ARS, “the risk of transmission is mainly at the household/living space level”.
Furthermore, each doctor has the obligation to report a case when he notices one. It is this declaration that allows the ARS to act: “an investigation is carried out to determine the people who have been in contact with the patient and proceed, depending on the nature of the contacts, to screening”.
In this context, cases of tuberculosis are observed “regularly” among students, and “mainly among foreign students from countries where tuberculosis is endemic, or students returning from exchanges in endemic countries.” “In the vast majority of cases, these are people infected outside France but for whom the disease occurs in France. We cannot therefore speak of a tuberculosis epidemic,” assures the ARS.
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