PALM BEACH, Florida - June 10, 2010 - Anti-immigrant tirades on the Internet have health officials cringing as they work to contain tuberculosis outbreaks at two Palm Beach County schools.
Fair or not, in a year when the public schools absorbed more than 650 Haitian earthquake victims, much of the vitriol about the disease has been directed toward those unfortunate students.
Health officials find themselves in a bind, as privacy laws prevent them from answering the anonymous slurs.
"I can only acknowledge that the individual has TB. Race, color, creed, birthplace, etc. that might identify the individual are confidential," said Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor.
Into that breach, the rumor mill has taken over. Parents and children at both Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee and Orchard View Elementary in Delray Beach want to know who the ill students are, to assess their children's risk of becoming ill, too. It takes many hours of breathing the same air with a contagious person for TB to spread.
As results from skin tests trickle in, some students and parents at Seminole Ridge High School said they thought they knew who brought the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis into their school in May.
"Word's gone around that it's some girl who's not from here," said Joey Tooley, 16, repeating the name of a Haitian teenager he doesn't know well. "I had first hour with her, but only for a few days. I have friends who had a lot of classes with her."
