17 infected with TB before student's death

COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A Nepalese student at Colorado State University-Pueblo who died of tuberculosis in June likely infected 17 others, officials said.

About 150 people were tested for tuberculosis by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment after Kalpana Dangol, 19, died June 8 at a Colorado Springs hospital, The Denver Post reported Sunday.

Of those individuals, 17 were found to have a latent form of the disease, the public health department found during its investigation. Ten of those who tested positive are in treatment, seven others are not because they have decided to forgo it or have moved, the newspaper said.

The state cannot force anyone to undergo treatment, state health officials said, but those diagnosed with latent tuberculosis can rid their body of the infection by taking a drug called Isoniazid for nine months.