4 days ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
Tuberculosis exposure prompts health alert at Northern California casino
Cache Creek Casino Resort in Yolo County issued a public health alert after confirming a case of contagious tuberculosis linked to its property.
In coordination with the California Department of Public Health and the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, the resort said it is conducting contact tracing to identify and notify individuals who may have been exposed.
'A case of contagious tuberculosis (TB) has been identified in our community,' the casino said in a statement released Wednesday. It added that staff are 'conducting contact tracing to identify and notify individuals who may have had close contact with the affected person.'
Health officials define close contact as a cumulative exposure of at least eight hours. Those who meet that threshold will be contacted directly and evaluated for possible infection.
The casino did not disclose when the exposure occurred or how many people may have been affected.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, TB is an airborne disease that spreads when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Symptoms of active TB include a persistent cough lasting three weeks or more, chest pain, coughing up blood, fatigue, weight loss, fever and night sweats.
Individuals with weakened immune systems face a higher risk of developing active disease.
'Most people with TB have an inactive infection that is not contagious,' the CDC notes.
Since 2023, California has averaged more than 2,000 TB cases annually, according to the state's public health department. More than 200 people in the state die from the disease each year.
Nevertheless, tuberculosis remains relatively rare in the United States. A vaccine known as bacille Calmette-Guérin, or BCG, has been available for decades, but it is not included in routine childhood immunizations due to the country's historically low TB rates.
The recent case at Cache Creek comes on the heels of a larger tuberculosis cluster identified in Contra Costa County, where 11 cases were linked to workers and customers at the California Grand Casino in Pacheco in 2023.
