The County’s Tuberculosis Control Program is working with St. Michael’s Catholic Church in the Paradise Hills area of San Diego to notify church members and visitors potentially exposed late last year to tuberculosis (TB).
The church is located at 2643 Homedale St., San Diego, CA, 92139. The dates of potential exposure are from Sept. 22, 2024, to Dec. 1, 2024, primarily at the 10 a.m. Sunday services. It can be difficult to diagnose tuberculosis. People with TB may be sick for many months before they are diagnosed, which means periods of exposure can be long.
Current evidence suggests this exposure is to a strain of tuberculosis resistant to rifampin, a key drug for treating TB.
Members and visitors to the church who believe they may have been exposed, along with healthcare providers caring for someone with a known exposure, should call the County Tuberculosis Control Program at (619) 692-8621 for further guidance. Some of the medications typically used to prevent TB disease following an exposure may not be effective in this case.
The exposure at St. Michael’s is not known to be related to any previously announced local cases or exposures to probable drug-resistant TB. Drug-resistant TB is less common than drug sensitive TB. Currently there is no evidence of an outbreak in the community.
As an airborne disease, TB is transmitted from person-to-person through inhalation of the bacteria. The bacteria are spread when someone sick with TB coughs, speaks, sings or breathes. People with frequent and prolonged indoor exposure to a person who is sick with TB should get tested.
“Symptoms of active TB include persistent cough, fever, night sweats, and unexplained weight loss,” said Ankita Kadakia, M.D., County interim public health officer. “Most people who become infected after exposure to tuberculosis will not get sick or exhibit signs right away. This is called latent TB infection. Some who become infected will become ill in the future, sometimes even years later, if their latent TB infection is not treated. For people who think they may have been exposed, blood tests and skin tests are an effective way to determine an infection.”
Effective treatments are available to cure people who are sick from active TB. It is especially important for people with symptoms of active TB and those who are immune compromised to see a medical provider to rule out active TB disease and to discuss treatment.
People who test positive for TB but who don’t have symptoms of an active disease should get a chest x-ray and talk to a medical provider, as they most likely have a latent TB infection.
Taking medicines for latent TB infection can cure the infection and keep people from getting sick later. In this case, because of exposure to rifampin-resistant TB, affected persons and their healthcare providers should contact the TB Control program for guidance.
The number of people diagnosed with active TB in San Diego County had decreased since the early 1990s when more than 400 cases were reported annually. After decades of declining, TB cases have begun to rise since 2020.
In 2020, there were 193 TB cases, 201 in 2021, 208 in 2022, and 242 in 2023. In 2024, a total of 247 people were reported with active TB disease in San Diego County.
An estimated 175,000 people in San Diego County have latent TB infection. Of these, 5 to 10 percent are at risk for developing active TB disease if they go without preventive treatment.
