The Georgetown University graduate student who contracted tuberculosis is undergoing treatment, is expected to make a full recovery and is not a threat to the Georgetown community, a D.C. Department of Health spokesperson said. The university sent out a broadcast e-mail on Dec. 26 warning students of a suspected case of pulmonary tuberculosis contracted by a non-residential graduate student, whose identity remains confidential. DOH spokesperson Michael Kharfen said the DOH subsequently confirmed that the student was infected with tuberculosis. In the e-mail, Assistant Vice President for Student Health Services James Welsh said that a limited number of students were advised to receive a medical screening but that those who were not contacted are not at risk. “Other than this limited group of individuals, public health officials inform us that there is no need for the majority of the Georgetown community to take any specific medical precautions at this time,” he said in the e-mail. Kharfen declined to say whether any of the individuals contacted had actually contracted tuberculosis, but he did say that a “relatively small number of individuals” were contacted. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually affects the lungs and is transmitted in the air. In the some rare case, tuberculosis can attack and damage other parts of the body. Those who share air space for an extended period of time in an enclosed environment are most likely to contract the disease from an infected individual. Once these individuals are identified, according to Kharfen, they are contacted and undergo a skin test, which tests whether a person has developed an immune response to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Kharfen said that, due to the seriousness of the disease, DOH treats any suspected tuberculosis case as though it were a confirmed case. “It takes several weeks after a culture is taken to confirm a case of TB,” he said. “We follow standard protocol even when the case is only suspected.” He also said that those identified as being in close contact with an individual with a confirmed case of tuberculosis will rarely contract the disease themselves. “Only one in 10 will ever develop it,” he said. “And a healthy person might never manifest symptoms of it. It’s usually those individuals with compromised immune systems who are at a higher risk.” Welsh said the university has been working closely with DOH but also has its own measures in place in the event of an epidemic. One such contingency plan includes two townhouses designated by the university as quarantine zones in the event that public health officials might require isolation or student quarantine. Welsh added, though, that this measure is not appropriate in the case of tuberculosis. “This [quarantine] would be considered in a true public health emergency and in consultation or at the direction of the D.C. Department of Health,” Welsh said. “The initiative for this comes from planning for pandemic influenza.” An information session will be held next Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Bunn Intercultural Center room 105 to answer questions people may have about tuberculosis.