A Syracuse University student is currently being treated for tuberculosis, SU’s Office of Health Services said in a campus-wide email Tuesday evening.

The student lives off campus and is not in physical contact with any other students, Karen Nardella, medical director, said in the email. The student is being assisted jointly by Health Services and the Onondaga County Health Department, she said.

Tuberculosis bacteria can be spread through the air when people share spaces for long periods of time. The bacteria is “much less infectious” than a common cold bacteria, Nardella said.

Symptoms include coughing that lasts at least three weeks, chest pain, coughing up blood and phlegm, extreme fatigue and loss of appetite. Tuberculosis is almost always curable, and most people who are exposed to tuberculosis never develop the active disease, Nardella said.

To become infected, one must have “repeated and prolonged exposure in an indoor space” to the disease, Nardella said. Tuberculosis is not spread by shaking someone’s hand, sharing food or drink, touching bed linens or toilet seats, sharing toothbrushes or kissing, she added.