(Location: California, USA)
Every now and then, the local news & local government announces that a TB case has been identified in the community, and it gives a list of possible locations & times at which people maybe have been exposed to it.
Example: Active TB case identified at X Gym. Possible locations include ABC train route, DEF school, XYZ grocery store…
Why is contact tracing for TB so much more serious than the flu or common cold?
In: Biology
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that spreads slowly and kills about half of people that are untreated. TB is already resistant to many antibiotics because of the bacteria’s unique cell wall. Any bacterial infection can become antibiotic resistant when antibiotics kill some but not all of the infection – that means that there’s fewer and fewer tools for doctors to use to treat it, and that happens in TB. TB spreads from inhalation of droplets containing the bacteria, and spreads pretty well in people with close contact to an infected individual. What’s more tricky is that you become infectious enough 3-4 weeks after your infection, which makes tracing backward to the first patient hard.
So yeah, it’s more serious, harder to treat, and hard to detect.
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