STUDENTS who have been screened for tuberculosis after the killer disease struck at Southampton University have to wait until next week to get the all-clear.

About ten students have been tested for TB after the sudden death from the disease of 22-year-old Stephen Muchengeti in the university's halls of residence.

The students, who had been in close contact with Stephen, were sent to the Royal South Hants Hospital and given a skin test - which takes a week to produce a result.

Dr Mike Barker, consultant in communicable diseases at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "So far they are all okay. We are screening the close contacts in the first instance and if any of those are found to have evidence of infection, screening will be broadened to a larger group of people who did not have such close contact.

"TB is quite a slow-developing illness, unlike other infections like meningitis and influenza, so we do have a bit more time to play with. The screening tests we do would identify an early stage of infection and we won't know the results for a week."

Other students have been put on the alert for symptoms of TB, which attacks the lungs and is passed on through coughing, sneezing and speaking.

As reported in yesterday's Daily Echo, Stephen arrived in Southampton from his home in Zimbabwe, Africa, at the end of September.

He was studying nursing and was living in block B at the Glen Eyre halls of residence in Glen Eyre Road, Bassett.

He had not had any contact with hospital patients and was six weeks into his course on campus when he was found dead in his room by a fellow student on November 18.

Medical experts are puzzled as to why Stephen did not receive treatment in time because it is rare for someone to die from TB without displaying prolonged symptoms.

Dr Barker said Stephen could have contracted TB in Africa when he was younger and not realised it because his body's immune system was able to control the infection.

He added: "The message for other students who have had some contact with him is there isn't any cause for concern because it's not a highly infectious disease. If people develop any symptoms they should see their doctor in the normal way."

Nobody was available to comment from the university's students union.

Deadly disease was scourge of Britain

Deadly disease was scourge of Britain

TUBERCULOSIS was once Britain's biggest killer, causing one death in four 200 years ago.

Although the poor were worst affected, every section of society had its victims, including the three Bront sisters and other literary greats like Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Walter Scott.

It remained a scourge for the next 150 years and as recently as 1950 there were 50,000 confirmed cases each year in England and Wales.

By the end of the Fifties BCG - the vaccine against tuberculosis - and successful drug therapy had begun to reduce case numbers sharply.

There are now just over 7,000 a year, with most people being affected abroad.

Typical symptoms:

Chronic or persistent cough and sputum production.

Fatigue.

Lack of appetite.

Weight loss.

Fever.

Night sweats.