Waterloo House has announced the re-opening of its award-winning restaurant following a tuberculosis scare two weeks ago.

The Pitts Bay Road hotel closed its kitchens on April 11 after a chef was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) while three other kitchen employees had also shown signs of the potential disease.

Horizons Ltd. managing director George Wardman confirmed that all the staff had tested negative, the facilities had been sterilised as extra precaution and that the Health Department had given the green light.

Health officials have revealed that Bermuda gets two or three cases of TB each year but have reassured the public that the dangers are minimal.

Tuberculosis is an airborne infectious disease that killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide in 2006 according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

However if TB is detected early and fully treated, sufferers quickly become non-infectious and are eventually cured.

Mr. Wardman said: "TB is much more common than we thought but is almost always in its dormant and non-infectious stage.

"Our one unfortunate case is sure he contracted the disease while assisting a passenger on the Dubai to London leg of his journey back from holiday on Goa, India.

Maitre d'Hotel Angelo Buglione said: "We are grateful the crisis has passed, that our colleague is out of the hospital and recovering and that our popular restaurant can return to business as usual.

"Yes, the closure hurt but our new owners have guaranteed that we will not be hurt financially. For this we are grateful."