AUBURN — Almost 300 people at Central Maine Community College, including students, faculty and staff, have been warned of a possible exposure to tuberculosis.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned CMCC of the case Jan. 10. The school immediately began working with the Maine CDC to decide who should be warned and tested, college President Scott Knapp said Friday.

“We’re spreading a very broad net for people who might have had the kind of persistent contact warned by officials,” Knapp said.

Emails and letters were sent to each person on the warning list, explaining the nature of tuberculosis and recommending that they attend a special testing clinic at the college.

It is scheduled to begin Monday, Jan. 27.

“We are following the protocols and procedures recommended by the Center for Disease Control and working very closely with them,” Knapp said.

Tuberculosis is a bacteria that can be spread through the air when someone with active TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings. People with prolonged, close contact with someone with TB could breathe in the bacteria and become infected.

The testing will be broken into two parts. People will begin with the tuberculin skin test, in which a purified protein is injected into the skin. They’ll be asked to return two days later, when professionals will examine the reaction on the skin.

Both parts of the test will be administered at the former bookstore in CMCC’s Jalbert Hall.

Knapp is hopeful that the discovery and the testing will not be too distracting. The people to be tested represent a small minority of the college’s 3,000-plus students, he said.

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