DATE: Saturday, May 3, 1997                 TAG: 9705030326

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   43 lines

TIDES PLAYERS WILL BE TESTED FOR TUBERCULOSIS ON MAY 15

Norfolk Tides second baseman Jason Hardtke was on the phone with his parents Wednesday night when they asked when he was going to be tested for tuberculosis.

``I didn't even know it was a contagious disease,'' said Hardtke.

There was a lot the Tides didn't know about tuberculosis at the beginning of the week.

But following the revelation that New York Mets pitcher Jason Isringhausen, their teammate for much of the last month, has tuberculosis, there's a lot they are learning in a short period of time.

The Tides will be tested for tuberculosis on May 15, the start of an eight-game home stand.

Trainer Joe Hawkins said the Tides would have been tested this weekend, but that there is a 48-hour wait period before the TB skin test can be properly read for results. The Tides leave Tuesday for a six-day road trip.

Hawkins said there was no hurry to test because nobody is showing any symptoms.

``If somebody was fighting a profuse cough, we'd be concerned,'' Hawkins said.

Dr. Allan Lans, the Mets director of their employee assistance program, will administer the tests.

Tuberculosis is contracted through airborne droplets and was once a leading cause of death.

It is fought through aggressive and prolonged treatment with antibiotics.

``We really feel that the chance of any kind of minor epidemic spreading through baseball or throughout the contacts of Jason is very, very unlikely,'' internist Dr. John Olichney told reporters in New York Thursday.

Still, on a team where 23 players live together, travel together and eat together, the opportunity is there.

``You are around these guys all the time, at least eight hours a day,'' said Hardtke, who added that colds can spread throughout an entire team in days. ``You are going to get their germs.''

``A lot of the players here have kids and wives with them,'' Tides catcher Charlie Greene said. ``This is a serious illness.

``It's not the flu or a cold. And you're always afraid of the unknown.''

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