| |
| |
Virulent TB Strain Linked to 7
Cases in South of Market |
 |
|
|
A man now in the
intensive care unit at San Francisco General Hospital has the same "very
virulent strain" of TB that has stricken seven men since December 2005,
according to Dr. Masae Kawamura, director of TB control with the city's
Department of Public Health.
Five of the men lived at the same South of Market Street single-room
occupancy hotel, which houses about 50 low-income residents.
"We've never seen this drug-resistant strain among the homeless and
marginally housed," Kawamura said. "There could be tinderbox effect with
exposure in crowded conditions to imported, highly drug-resistant strains."
At first, authorities did not link the cases to the hotel.
When doctors diagnosed the first patient in December 2005, they treated him
with the standard regimen of four antibiotics, not knowing he was already
resistant to three of them. He quickly developed resistance to the fourth
drug and to two second-line treatments. The patient is not contagious, but
some of his sputum samples meet CDC's criteria for extensively
drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).
After the first case was identified as drug resistant, Kawamura said the
other patients diagnosed with the same strain have been treated with more
than four antibiotics and have not developed further resistance. One patient
had been sick for almost a year before he presented for treatment; he
apparently carried the drug-resistant strain from Siberia. One patient died
in April 2006, just one month after being diagnosed.
San Francisco
Chronicle (05.12.07):: Sabin Russell |
|
|
|
|
| |
We are providing the above information as a public
service only. Providing synopses of key scientific articles and lay
media reports on HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases
does not constitute endorsement. The above summaries were prepared
without conducting any additional research or investigation into the
facts and statements made in the articles being summarized, and
therefore readers are expressly cautioned against relying on the
validity or invalidity of any statements made in these summaries. This
CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News
Update also includes information from CDC and
other government agencies, such as background on MMWR articles, fact
sheets and announcements. |
|
|
