A POORLY schoolboy has been diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. The infection - which before the discovery of antibiotics killed so many people it was known as the white plague - is spread to person to person through coughing.

The student, from Easingwold School in North Yorkshire, is receiving treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis, which attacks the lungs. He was responding well, health experts said.

North Yorkshire Health Protection Agency has offered TB screening, involving a chest x-ray, to everyone who was in close and prolonged contact with the infected pupil.

But it reassured parents that it was an isolated case, and there was very little risk of other youngsters developing the disease.

The agency flatly denied rumours circulating in Easingwold that three pupils at the school had contracted the illness, or were suspected of having it.

A spokeswoman said the standard treatment given in such cases involved a course of three to four antibiotics, generally to be taken over a six-month period, with patients normally feeling better after two to four weeks.

She believed it was not yet known how the illness had been contracted in this case, and said: "The form of tuberculosis involved was a disease of the lungs, which could be passed from person to person, usually when an affected person is coughing.

"However, this infection is not spread easily. The risk to other pupils is minimal as the infection is quite difficult to pick up.

"This is a single isolated case and no further action is required, but doctors at the North Yorkshire Health Protection Unit will keep the situation under review."

The school takes pupils from Easingwold, numerous villages across the Vale of York and also communities within the northern end of City of York Council's area.