The public

was never in any danger from the tuberculosis that struck an employee

of a local restaurant recently, health officials said.

"There

was no transmission," said Diana Gaskins, who heads up the Fayette

County Health Department's TB program. A restaurant patron phoned The

Citizen concerned about exposure, but there was nothing to worry about,

said Gaskins.

TB outbreaks

are a concern to health officials. The disease is deadly enough that when

a case occurs, law requires that it be reported to the state.

But it's rare,

and on the decline in the United States, according to Ann Poole, nurse

educator for the state Health Department.

The number

of cases in Georgia rose to a peak of 909 in 1991. There were 703 cases

last year, compared with 670 in 1999. In 1998, the latest year recorded,

there were 1,110 deaths out of 18,361 cases of TB nationwide.

"It's

much harder to catch than the common cold," Poole said.

Gaskins said

employees of the restaurant were all tested when the local case was discovered,

and all the test results were negative.

The worker

affected was not in contact with the public, she said, and even if there

had been contact, casual exposure is not enough to put people in danger,

she added.

"It takes

prolonged exposure to coughing in a closed environment," Gaskins

said. In this case, the patient wasn't even coughing, she added.

TB cannot be

transmitted through food or skin contact, she added, and Poole backed

that up. "It's airborne bacteria," she said.

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