A false identity. A highly contagious and fatal disease. A potential campus quarantine. All the makings of a good action-thriller.

But this was no movie; just the events surrounding a pulmonary tuberculosis scare on Saint Louis University’s campus.

Less than a week after announcing that a male SLU student had tuberculosis, the Student Health and Counseling Center rescinded their warning, announcing that the infected person was not actually a SLU student.

“We never had any indication this wasn’t the person he reported to be,” said Jeff Fowler, associate director of Media Relations.

The tuberculosis threat was announced Oct. 10, after SLU was informed by the St. Louis Department of Public Health the day before. The health department told SLU that an individual reporting to be a SLU student had been diagnosed with active pulmonary tuberculosis at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, after checking-in to the hospital on Oct. 4.

The announcement to campus included specific notification to 135 students and faculty that were in direct contact with the allegedly infected student, as well as a mass e-mail to the entire SLU community and mailings to all parents of SLU students. The alleged student did not live on-campus, thus minimizing the contact with other students.

More than 140 tuberculosis tests were administered by the Student Health and Counseling Center over the next few days.

Normally, a student who is seriously ill and in the hospital would receive a visit from someone at SLU, but due to the seriousness of this communicable illness, a SLU representative was not sent immediately.

By Oct. 11, a SLU staff member did visit the hospital, but the infected individual had already been released. According to Fowler, on Oct. 16 the University discovered that the person who had been relayed to them as the infected student was actually still on campus and in good health.

A staff member who had been informed of the situation and who knew the student noticed him on campus and asked him if he had tuberculosis. He did not.

Fowler said that the individual who had been admitted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital used the identification of a SLU student.

Fowler noted that the individual and the SLU student were “acquaintances.” Once learning of the false identity, SLU informed the University community that a threat did not actually exist.

An investigation by the University was initiated and continues. “We have to further investigate the situation,” said Kathy Humphrey, vice president for Student Development. “Depending on what we find depends, on if we take it through our judicial system.”

Humphrey noted that the SLU student whose identity was used has been cooperative in the investigation.

“He is very concerned about the situation,” she said.

Humphrey hopes to conclude the investigation and take action, if necessary, within the next few weeks.

Both Fowler and Humphrey believe that the University acted appropriately on the information they were given. “All of this was based on state health-department regulations,” explained Fowler. “Our primary focus was to round up a list of others possibly infected.”

Humphrey said, “Our primary concern was that students get immediate attention. We took all the actions we should take if we have a case of tuberculosis on campus.”

She concluded, “I would rather err on the side of too much information.”