County health officials Monday warned members of and visitors to a La Jolla church that they may have been exposed to tuberculosis.
The potential exposure concerns Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church, 7669 Girard Ave., with dates of potential exposure ranging from Feb. 17 to Sept. 16 of this year. The exposures would have been primarily at 8 a.m. services Monday through Friday, Saturday 9 a.m. services and Sunday 7:30 a.m. services.
With health officials saying the exposure appears to involve drug-resistant tuberculosis, some medications typically used to prevent the lung disease might not be effective.
Anyone who believes they may have been exposed was advised to call the County Tuberculosis Control Program at 619-692-8621.
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Ankita Kadakia, the county's interim public health officer, said in a statement the symptoms of tuberculosis — an airborne bacterial disease transmitted person to person — include persistent cough, fever, night sweats, and unexplained weight loss.
Others may have a latent TB infection, meaning they may not get sick until a later time, "sometimes even years later," she said, if it goes untreated.
"For people who think they may have been exposed, blood tests and skin tests are an effective way to determine an infection," Kadakia said.
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Those who don't have symptoms but test positive for TB are likely to have a latent TB infection and were advised to get a chest X-ray and talk to a medical provider, the county said.
TB cases in San Diego County have been on the rise since 2020, with 243 people reported with active TB last year. County health officials said an estimated 175,000 in the county have latent TB infections and said that without treatment, 5% to 10% of those people are at risk of developing active TB disease.
