Oktibbeha County Hospital will host a tuberculosis testing certification workshop on Feb. 3 from 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event is hosted by OCH and is organized by Mississippi State Department of Health. Barbara Burkhalter will be the instructor for the course.
The class will cost $40 for participants who register before Friday. For those who sign up after Friday, the course will be $50.
To sign up, visit Mississippi State's Department of Health website or follow the link on the OCH community outreach webpage.
"It's a valuable class, in my opinion, especially for those who work on medical units or med surge units, or even in nursing homes," OCH Infection Control Manager Savannah Brown said. "It's a pretty broad course, not just about tuberculosis, but also about being able to administrate and read TB skin tests. And it does result in what's considered TB certification."
Advances in medicine have made tuberculosis manageable and treatable for today's society. The certification workshop will teach how to test for and identify symptoms of tuberculosis.
"It will teach, usually nurses, more information about tuberculosis," Brown said.
As a bacterial disease, tuberculosis can lie dormant, which is referred to as a latent tuberculosis infection. This occurs when a person has been exposed, and the bacteria is lying dormant in their body. The difference between active tuberculosis and a latent infection is that the infection does not make you sick, and it is not contagious. A tuberculosis skin test can test for the latent infection, as can certain blood tests.
"The course teaches the typical symptoms of active tuberculosis disease," Brown said. "A TB skin test can only tell if you have a latent TB infection."
With this certification class, participants can learn how to identify active tuberculosis and identify a latent infection in time to treat the patient.
The class will be taught at the OCH Community Room and will also count as 6.33 contact hours of nursing continuing education.