Families have been notified that a student tested positive for tuberculosis at Colonia High School.

Woodbridge Township School District shared the news in a letter to parents and guardians. The district said the student who tested positive was being treated and is doing well, then explained what steps were being taken after this positive test.

The letter from March 14 said the school district was working with the Middlesex County Office of Health Services and Woodbridge Township Health Department.

School and county officials are working "to identify students and staff who may have been potentially exposed to the individual." The letter said anyone identified as a close contact would be screened as a precautionary measure.

The school district wrote it's important that potentially exposed individuals participate in the tuberculosis investigation.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that typically affects the lungs but can also infect other parts of the body. Tuberculosis is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases. Rates in the United States were going down but are now slowly starting to come up. The American Pulmonary Association says it is not easy to contract an infection - usually a person must have close contact with the infected person for a substantial length of time. Tuberculosis can be cured with medication.

Education can be important to not cause panic and share that not everyone needs to be tested.

"We tell people in a congregate setting like a school, hospital, prison something like that, we tell them to focus on the people who have had the closest and most frequent contact with a person. We wouldn't go and test everyone in the school", said Rajita Bhavaraju, PhD and director of RePORT International Coordinating Center.

People seeking additional information are asked to contact the county's tuberculosis control center at 732-321-5297 or the Woodbridge Health Department at 732-855-0600, ext 5012. The district says concerned families can also contact school nurse Joanne Beebe at 732-499-6500 or can reach out to their own health care provider.