"Tuberculosis is a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs, infecting the air sacs where they multiply and spread. If the infection is not contained by the body's immune response, the bacteria destroys lung tissue which can trigger chest pain and coughing up of mucus or blood. Eventually, infection can spread throughout the body via the bloodstream, often to the kidneys, liver and heart muscles."
""Here in California, about 30% of the cases are transmitted locally," said Stanford TB researcher Jason Andrews, who has led vaccination campaigns across South America and Ethiopia. "When somebody who has TB of the lungs exhales the TB in an indoor environment and somebody else inhales (it), that's the route for transmission." Andrews said TB outbreaks are infrequent and usually small."
San Francisco Public Health Department launched a large-scale TB contact investigation after at least three students at Archbishop Riordan High School tested positive. Administrators canceled classes and basketball games to reduce potential transmission. Public health officials identified at least 30 latent TB infections among contacts; latent cases are non-contagious. Officials aim to contain the cluster before wider spread in the Bay Area, where TB rates are relatively high. Tuberculosis typically attacks the lungs and can destroy lung tissue, causing chest pain and coughing up mucus or blood. Most infected individuals have latent TB; roughly 10% develop active disease in a lifetime.
Read at The Mercury News
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