The University of Maine at Machias and Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating a reported case of tuberculosis on the Down East campus.
The Maine CDC notified university officials on Oct. 24 that one person had developed symptoms of the disease and had left the campus on Oct. 16, according to a statement Wednesday from the university.
The university, which has enrolled 763 undergraduate students this year, has notified everyone known to have had close contact with the infected person and advised them to get tested, university officials said.
Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease caused by a bacterium that usually infects the lungs but also can affect the kidneys, spine and brain, according to the Maine CDC. Symptoms include chest pain and a severe cough that can last for weeks and produce phlegm and blood from deep in the lungs.
The possibility of someone spreading the disease is low, occurring generally when an infected person speaks, coughs or sings near others who breathe in the bacteria. Many people who contract tuberculosis don’t get sick and cannot spread the latent disease to others.
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