MOH did not make public TB case in Punggol preschool where 2-year-old child was infected

Just 5 days after about 80 preschool children enrolled at a centre in Bukit Batok were screened for tuberculosis (TB), after a teacher there was found to have contracted the infectious disease, it has been revealed that at least one student at a preschool in Punggol has been diagnosed with latent TB, after a trainee teacher tested positive for the disease earlier this month.

In the case of the preschool in Bukit Batok, the teacher diagnosed with TB was a Chinese national who taught at the Little Greenhouse preschool on Bukit Batok Street 31. The teacher did not update the pre-school on her condition after she was diagnosed.

In the case of the two-year-old child from the preschool in Punggol who was diagnosed, the teacher is a Filipina and she was a new trainee-teacher who had been working in the preschool before clearing the pre-employment screening here in Singapore. She passed a medical test in her home country. The trainee-teacher will be leaving the school on mutual agreement and returning to her home country.

The preschool identified cases of active TB among its employees on 12 Aug , and that some children might have been exposed to the disease.

In an email seen by Channel NewsAsia the preschool centre said that the Ministry of Health (MOH) would visit the school for a site assessment on Aug 16, and conduct health checks, tests and contact tracing.

About 2 weeks after the visit to the preschool was to have taken place, MOH had not made public the outbreak of TB in the preschool centre.