THE HEALTH Service Executive yesterday confirmed that it had been notified of a case of TB in a school near Cork city.
The executive said that it had begun screening all those who had been in close contact with the pupil.
The HSE South's department of public health confirmed a case of TB had been identified at a school in the Glanmire area and said there was an on-going liaison between public health doctors, the school and parents of pupils attending there.
According to a HSE statement, for the decade up to 2004, Cork and Kerry experienced a general downward trend in notified TB cases in line with overall national trends.
In that period there was a 32 per cent drop in notified TB cases in the Cork-Kerry area, apart from a blip in 2003.
However, over the last two years, there has been a rise in TB notifications in the region, with 96 cases notified in 2006.
Provisional figures for last year suggested 110 cases, with some 21 of these being accounted for by an "unprecedented creche-related TB outbreak in Cork".