Schools might be as dangerous as prisons and mines when it comes to contracting tuberculosis. [s]The Times[/s] reports that a year-long study at an urban Cape Town high school showed that pupils inhaled recycled air about 60% of the time. This put them at high risk of contracting TB, which is spread by airborne bacteria and is usually contracted indoors. ‘The epidemic is notably disquieting in schools,’ researchers from the [b]University of Cape Town[/b] and [b]Stanford University[/b] wrote. The study found that pupils aged 15 to 19 were at particular risk because of high rates of infection in that group and the significant amount of time they spent indoors. Doron Isaacs, deputy general secretary of NGO [b]Equal Education[/b], is quoted as saying: ‘TB is being transmitted in schools, particularly in overcrowded and poorly ventilated classrooms. The damp floors of mud schools compound the problem.’
[link url=http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/05/09/tb-a-danger-at-schools]Full report in The Times[/link]
[link url=http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0096334]PLOS ONE article[/link]