The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the area of Public Health, has confirmed two cases of tuberculosis in two educational centers in Lanzarote, but warns "that social alarm should not be created", because cases occur "every year", although "less and less".
The general director of public health in the Canary Islands, Ricardo Redondas, explained to La Voz that the two cases were detected "in the first half of November" and that the protocol was activated "immediately." However, he did not want to confirm in which educational centers these cases have been detected -which he affirms are not related to each other-, out of "respect for the privacy of those affected."
What he has emphasized is that teachers, parents, and the rest of the center's workers have already been informed. "What I don't want is for social alarm to be generated and for another parent to wonder if he will be the one affected, because if he has not already been informed, he is not in that circle of possible infected people," he clarifies. In this regard, he also specifies that tuberculin tests have already been carried out on people who were in contact with the two patients detected.
"A positive result does not mean you are sick"
In the tuberculin test, the "vast majority are testing negative", he pointed out. Regarding those who have tested positive, he affirms that "there are only a few cases" and specifies that this does not mean that they have contracted the disease. "It means that they have at some point had contact with tuberculosis, but not necessarily that they are sick," he clarifies.
In those cases that have tested positive, "a follow-up protocol is opened", which differs depending on whether it is "a child or an adult." In the case of the little ones, he points out that "they are given treatment preventively, unlike adults. Even if the baciloscopies (which are the analyses that are done of the sputum) are negative, they are given treatment and serial studies continue to be done, because they are much more cautious."
Focus of the disease
In addition to treating patients and carrying out analyses on people in their environment, the work of Public Health is also now focused on trying to locate the focus of the disease. "Both those who may have been infected and those who have infected the disease are analyzed," says Ricardo Redondas, who warns that sometimes all the results are negative, and it is filed as an "isolated case."
Regarding these two affected educational centers, which continue to function normally, he insists that the two cases "are not related to each other." According to the information that La Voz had received through several parents, both cases have occurred in educational centers in the same municipality, although in different locations, but the director of Public Health has insisted on not confirming the name and location of the centers out of respect for the privacy of the patients. What he has confirmed is that both are natives of the island.
Fewer cases of tuberculosis in the Canary Islands and Lanzarote every year
According to the data offered by the director of Public Health, "in the year 2000 in Lanzarote there were 37 cases of tuberculosis in Lanzarote and in the year 2015 only 13 cases", so he emphasizes that there has been a progressive decrease.
"The population in Lanzarote is about 140,000 people and the changes may also be attributed to the growth variable, so there may have been some increase as occurred in 2006, when there were 58, but it is not considered as a peak, but as a variability, since the trend has been progressively negative," he points out.
In this sense, he has also advanced that due to these low figures, "Canary Islands is the first community that has just promoted the Tuberculosis Eradication Plan." "We are in such a good situation that we can afford to do it, so we have proposed the first eradication goal for 2030 and the second for 2050, since it cannot be eliminated immediately," he points out.
Regarding the vaccine against tuberculosis, the director of Public Health considers that it is not relevant whether the patients were vaccinated or not. "This vaccine does not appear in almost any childhood vaccination schedule due to its low effectiveness," he affirms, specifying that it does not appear in the Canary Islands one.
"The reason is that the tuberculosis vaccine mainly prevents serious complications of tuberculosis in newborns, such as tuberculous meningitis. However, it does not have a significant impact on the development of other forms of tuberculosis in older ages, that is, it is not as good as we would like and that is why it is not given."
For this reason, he added, "the communities that had a lot of tuberculous meningitis, had it in their childhood schedule but as they have reduced this disease, they have removed it from the schedule because it is not a vaccine that confers a potent and lasting immunity to combat tuberculosis."
