County health officials warned Thursday that current or former residents, employees and visitors of a La Jolla nursing home may have been exposed to tuberculosis.
The potential exposure is related to The Cove at La Jolla Post Acute Care Center, located at 7160 Fay Ave., with dates of potential exposure ranging from February 17th to September 16th.
Health officials say the exposure appears to involve drug-resistant tuberculosis, and some drugs commonly used to prevent the lung disease may not be effective.
Anyone who believes they may have been infected was encouraged to call the county Tuberculosis Control Program at 619-692-8621.
Ankita Kadakia, the county’s interim public health officer, said in a statement that symptoms of tuberculosis include persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss.
Some people also have latent tuberculosis infection. That means, without treatment, the disease may not develop “sometimes until years later,” she says.
“For people who think they may have been infected, blood and skin tests are effective ways to determine infection,” Kadakia said.
People who do not have symptoms but test positive for TB are likely to have an underlying TB infection and are advised to get a chest X-ray and consult a health care provider, the county said. .
Tuberculosis cases in San Diego County have been increasing since 2020, with 243 people reported to have active tuberculosis last year. County health officials said an estimated 175,000 people in the county have latent TB infection, and 5% to 10% of them are at risk of developing active TB if not treated.
