AUGUSTA — Lewiston High School Principal W. Gus LeBlanc is one of three people in Maine — and the only nonmedical professional — being honored for taking action to prevent the spread of disease.

LeBlanc is being given the Pump Handle Award by the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention for his actions when a student was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the agency announced Wednesday.

Public health requires partners, “people outside our systems to collaborate with us,” said Maine State Epidemiologist Stephen Sears. The award is a way of recognizing people for a job well-done, he said. “We can’t do it without their help.”

Sears praised LeBlanc and his staff as “incredibly helpful. They invited us in and collaborated.”

On July 1, LeBlanc sent letters to the parents of 87 students warning that their children could have been in close contact with a student who was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The letter recommended the students be tested for possible treatment.

Letters were also sent to all parents letting them know what was going on, and was followed up by an information lecture for parents and the community, given by Sears.

LeBlanc said he learned of the infected student’s diagnosis after the end of the school year.

“The kids had gone for the summer,” LeBlanc said. Staff had to figure out which students were in the same classes as the student with TB. School staff, public nurses and the CDC teamed up to track down students and ensure those who needed testing got it, he said. That required a lot of phone calls and follow-up calls, LeBlanc said.

A few students tested positive because they already had what Sears called “latent TB infection,” Sears said. A person can be infected with tuberculosis and not be sick, he said.

“When we do an investigation, we’re looking for those who are newly infected,” Sears said. Few, if any, students were identified as positive from the student who was diagnosed. “We think those who were positive had it from the past.”

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said the award was well-deserved. “(Gus) did a great job working with the CDC identifying the problem, developing procedures and routines.”

The Pump Handle Award was named for a doctor who in the 1800s discovered a pump was spreading water contaminated with sewage.

The award in Maine was also given to Kirk Doing, director of Clinical and Molecular Microbiology at Affiliated Laboratory in Bangor, for work his lab to test pertussis in Penobscot County; Donald Piper, chief medical technologist at the Microbiology of NorDx Laboratories, for leadership in implementing electronic laboratory reporting; and the Maine Medical Center Research Institute’s Vector-borne Disease Laboratory, for its work to control tick-borne diseases.

[email protected]