About 80 students and staff at St. Jean de Brébeuf Catholic Secondary School have potentially been exposed to active tuberculosis.

A case has been reported at the Mountain school on Acadia Drive to the city's public health department.

"Public Health Services has notified most of the people who were potentially exposed and is in the process of notifying the remaining few," it says in a statement. "Notification was done through direct letter with Public Health Services staff available on site at the school and by telephone to answer questions."

[ Public health says TB not easily spread despite recent exposure at Brebéuf high school ]

Public health will not provide further details due to privacy reasons including the age of the person infected with TB or where he or she caught the bacteria that most often affects the lungs.

The department is also not revealing where else the person has spent time in the community.

TB is a serious infectious disease that is spread person to person through the air.

"There is no significant risk to the broader Hamilton community," says the statement. "Public Health Services has identified all individuals who may have been exposed provided information directly to them on the recommended followup."

Some of those potentially exposed will be recommended for testing.

"The overall risk of anyone in the school developing active TB is low," says the statement.

The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board also would not provide further details. The school has a student population of more than 1,500.

It released its own statement: "The board is co-operating fully with public health and supporting them in the implementation of their protocol."