Skip to main content
A person at Lane Middle School may have been contagious with tuberculosis for almost eight months, Multnomah County announced Thursday afternoon.
The county confirmed the one active case of pulmonary tuberculosis at the Woodstock neighborhood school, and said the person was recently diagnosed. At this time, officials are “optimistic” that spread won’t occur from this specific case, though the person could have been contagious for eight months—from Sept. 3, 2024, to May 1, 2025.
Tuberculosis, a bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs, can, if left untreated, progress into more serious symptoms or even death. The disease can be active, like the one at Lane, meaning it is contagious and presents symptoms, or latent, meaning the bacteria are present but the carrier is not contagious and presents no symptoms.
The disease hard to catch and usually spreads only through close face-to-face contact for several hours over a period of weeks or months, according to the county’s announcement. That means casual encounters—like walking by an infected individual in the hallway, or even sharing drinking glasses—are not ways the infection traditionally spreads. The bacteria also do not live on surfaces.
“Most people who have had casual contact with a person diagnosed with tuberculosis will not become infected,” Dr. Richard Bruno, the county’s health officer, said in a statement. “While tuberculosis can be spread in school settings, we expect that anyone infected would not yet be ill and could be effectively treated with medication.”
Tuberculosis is hard to detect, which could explain why the individual may have been contagious for such a long period before being diagnosed with TB. Active tuberculosis usually develops months or years after initial infection. When treated properly, almost all patients are cured.
Symptoms of tuberculosis include a cough, chest pain, and coughing up blood or phlegm. The county has contacted via email people who might have been exposed. The health department will provide free blood tests to the Lane school community in the coming weeks, and families or staff can call the county’s tuberculosis clinic at 503-988-3406.