SA Health said in a statement today that two further cases of tuberculosis (TB) have been reported in South Australia, after a cluster of the disease was found in the Murraylands last week. Previously, 11 people were diagnosed with TB in the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.
One of the new cases, although diagnosed in Adelaide, involves a person who recently travelled while potentially infectious to Port Augusta and several APY Lands communities.
The other case is in a child under the age of five years old and has been linked to the cluster of cases in the Murraylands.
The total number of active cases linked to the Murraylands cluster is now six, including two children and one historical case. Most of the cases in this cluster are connected as close family members.
Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said SA TB services were working quickly to identify high risk close contacts associated with both cases and provide specialist screening clinics.
“There is no need for the community or others to alter their activities in response to these cases,” Spurrier said.
“People identified by SA TB Services as a potential contact will be asked to undergo screening. This is important for their own health and the health of their loved ones.”
She said the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination has also begun for babies and young children under five years old who live in the APY Lands.
“BCG vaccination for other people in relation to these clusters is not recommended,” Spurrier said.
InDaily earlier reported that SA Health said the Murraylands TB cluster was not connected to an outbreak in the APY Lands in the state’s Far North West, where 11 cases are currently active and hundreds of people have been screened.
Genomic testing of the Murraylands cluster linked it to a historic case from 2018, with most cases close family members, while nine people had been diagnosed with latent, or ‘sleeping’, tuberculosis.
People with latent tuberculosis do not have symptoms and cannot spread the infection, but over time it can progress to its active form.
Symptoms of tuberculosis include a bad cough that lasts longer than two weeks, chest pain and coughing up blood or phlegm, and sometimes recurrent fevers and weight loss.
SA Health said it did not believe the Murraylands cluster posed a risk to the wider community.
It said high-risk contacts were considered to have frequent, prolonged and close contact with an active case, such as living in the same household or dwelling and that was determined by SA TB clinicians.
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