A case of tuberculosis has been confirmed to be in the territory.

Dr. Bryce Larke, the territory's medical health officer, was unable to provide further information, including the timeframe of the diagnosis nor the location of the infected individual.

'There is no risk to individuals in the Yukon,' he said in an interview this morning.

The medical staff will work to identify people the infected individual was in 'very close contact' with and investigate if those individuals have become infected with the disease, he said.

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that forms lesions on the lungs. It is initially characterized by the coughing-up of mucus or spit containing blood, fever, weight loss and chest pain.

Individuals become infected with tuberculosis by breathing in particles of the bacteria that are in the air because of coughing, sneezing or spitting by an infected person while in close contact.

People at a high risk of becoming infected with tuberculosis are the poor or homeless, nursing home residents or prison inmates, alcoholics or intravenous drug users, or those suffering from diabetes or HIV/AIDS.

The initial symptoms of tuberculosis can take many months, or even years, to develop.

Some people go their whole lives without showing any symptoms, because the body's immune system is able to form scar tissue around the infected bacteria which contain it in an inactive state.

This keeps the individual from showing any symptoms and the disease from spreading.

However, if the infected person begins to suffer from a decreased immune system at some point in their life, for an example, as a result of old age or cancer, the scar tissue may begin to break down and the symptoms become apparent.

Approximately eight million new cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed every year throughout the world. Almost two million people die from the disease annually.

However, the disease can be diagnosed through chest x-rays, sputum (matter coughed up from the lungs) analysis and skin tests. The disease is very often successfully treated with antibiotics.

Larke said the territory is following a standard approach of diagnosing the individual and investigating the possibility of other infections.

How the territory is treating the situation is no different than methods used anywhere else in Canada, he said.

The last tuberculosis case was confirmed on January 13. It was the fourth case in the territory over several months. Two others were confirmed on Dec. 24, 2004 and an additional in late-October.

All four of the cases were found in an unnamed Yukon community.

The Yukon usually sees one or two confirmed cases of tuberculosis a year, Larke previously told the Star.

The highest number of diagnosed cases was in 1994 with 10 confirmed instances.