The HSE has advised 40 patients that they may have come into contact with an individual who was later diagnosed as having TB.
Letters have been sent out to the people concerned, who attended the Emergency Department at University Hospital Limerick in late November 2018.
The health service says the risk of patients developing Tuberculosis from this possible contact is extremely small.
It does not recommend that patients who have been contacted have any investigations unless they have worrying symptoms such as a persistent cough, weight loss without dieting, or unusual sweating attacks (particularly at night time).
If this occurs they should contact their GP and advise him/her that they may have been in contact with a TB case.
There has been an interval between the attendance at ED and letters being issued to patients as the diagnosis of TB was made at a later stage and in another country where the case is being treated.
Details of the TB diagnosis were not forwarded to the HSE from the country where the diagnosis was made until 18thFebruary this year.
It is not know where the case contracted TB, but it is likely to have been in another country.
Further information regarding TB is available at http://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/vaccinepreventable/tuberculosistb/
