USS Ronald Reagan Crew to Be Tested for TB
(AP) - SAN DIEGO-All 4,800 crew members of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and 1,200 family and friends will be screened for tuberculosis because an initial round of tests showed a small number of people were infected, Navy officials said.
The initial tests were conducted after a 32-year-old sailor was hospitalized two weeks ago with active tuberculosis. He had been aboard the ship when it returned to San Diego on July 6 after a six-month deployment.
Families and friends were on the ship for the last leg of its voyage, from Hawaii to San Diego.
The Navy tested 776 people who might have met the infected sailor and 34 - 4.4 percent - tested positive, Capt. Frank Chapman said.
However, none of the 34 showed symptoms of active tuberculosis and were not contagious, Chapman said. Less than 1 percent of those who test positive develop the active disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The infected sailor has been released from the San Diego Naval Medical Center but will remain in quarantine at home until he is no longer considered infectious, military officials said.