A public meeting was held at Sunny Brae Middle School in Moncton after its principal alerted parents to a case of tuberculosis.

Anglophone East Superintendent Greg Ingersoll says this is the first case of the disease under his jurisdiction this year.

“If it impacts one of our schools our parents are obviously concerned because children and adults in the school system are in very close proximity to each other,” said Ingersoll.

The principal’s letter informs parents that the provincial Department of Health will be contacting them if it is determined their child came into contact with the affected person.

“We'll be doing skin testing with those and if we have any sign based on that skin testing that there may have been transmission of disease then at that point we'll go to another circle of contacts,” said New Brunswick Regional Medical Health Officer Dr. Yves Leger.

Tuberculosis is an infection of the lung, similar to pneumonia. Symptoms can include coughing, fever, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Between three and 10 cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed in New Brunswick each year.

The disease isn't easily transmitted as the bacteria must be inhaled from an infected person. But because of the bacteria's ability to lay dormant for years, pinpointing the origin of the case at Sunny Brae will be difficult.

“We don't necessarily know where that initial infection came from and because of the disease and because it can take many decades before you become ill, it's always harder to say for sure where that infection came from,” said Dr. Leger.

The infected person was diagnosed last weekend and immediately removed from the school system. There’s no word on whether it is a student or staff member.

“Luckily (tuberculosis) is a treatable disease so there are antibiotics that can be used to treat it and actually cure it,” said Dr. Leger.

Not everyone who has the bacteria will become sick, but for those who do and are treated, there are no long-term effects. But determining who within the school may have contracted tuberculosis is priority number one.

With file from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.