Person with contagious tuberculosis identified at UC Davis; contact tracing underway
DAVIS – Health officials have started contact tracing after a person at the UC Davis campus was identified as having contagious tuberculosis.
UC Davis officials announced on Wednesday that they were working on identifying and notifying people who had been in close contact with the infected person. Only people who had at least 8 hours of exposure to the person are classified as close contacts.
Exactly where and how the person contracted tuberculosis is not known at this point, but health officials say there is only a low exposure risk to the general community.
The infected person's current condition was not stated.
Officials have also not stated how many close contacts they have identified.
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that can cause serious illness in people. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 4,500 people die from TB each day – but fatal cases of the disease are almost exclusively limited to the less-developed world.