Update – 10:50 a.m.

Michelle Hendricks, director of the Thielen Student Health Center, explained that the health center is working to do early identification of anyone who may have been exposed to the TB disease.

Hendricks said that the health center is expecting the number of students who will need to be contacted to be “quite small.”

Students who are not contacted do not need to worry that they have contracted the TB disease.

“If students are not contacted for follow up, then they are not at risk,” Hendricks said.

Hendricks did confirm that the student who has been diagnosed has an active form of the TB disease, which makes it contagious, but explained that the Story County Public Health office has come up with a plan of treatment for the student.

The diagnosed student will spend two weeks on antibiotics and be tested before returning to class to confirm that they are no longer contagious.

Iowa State confirmed in a news release Friday morning that the Thielen Student Health Center has diagnosed a student with tuberculosis.

The health center diagnosed the disease during routine health screenings that are required for all incoming international students.

The student has not been identified, but the news releases states “the student lives on campus, is being treated with antibiotics and will remain isolated from the university community until public health officials clear the individual to return to class based on laboratory results.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that TB typically attacks the lungs but can attack any part of the body. The CDC’s website also states that the disease is spread through the air and can be fatal if not treated correctly.

TB is treatable through the use of antibiotics.

Check back with the the Daily as more information becomes available.