A middle-aged Southern Humboldt man had tuberculosis when he died in December, officials with the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) confirmed today. However, TB was not the cause of the man’s death.

 

 

The Public Health Branch of DHHS has been investigating the case since December when, during an autopsy, a medical examiner noticed possibly infected lung tissue. DHHS was notified and a lung specimen was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for analysis. The results came back positive.

The county’s investigation is ongoing, according to Hava Phillips, a public health nurse in the DHHS Health Branch’s Communicable Disease and Tuberculosis Control Program. 

“Tuberculosis investigations are long and complicated,” Phillips said. “We’re still continuing to make sure that we’re contacting everybody who may have been exposed and testing everyone who may have been exposed.”

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacteria usually attacks the lungs, causing such symptoms as chronic coughing, chest pains, night sweats and fever, though it can also infect other parts of the body, including the kidneys, spine and brain, according to the CDC.

It’s unknown how the deceased man contracted the disease. Phillips said TB is less infectious than the flu or the common cold. “Really, the only way [to contract it] is by breathing in air from the lungs of somebody who already has it and is contagious at that point,” she said. Traveling in a car with the windows rolled up, for example, or sharing a small, enclosed room. “It’s certainly not the kind of thing you would get in a grocery store.”

The county’s investigation is focused on finding people who may have been exposed before the man died. His identity is not being released, though public health officials have been in contact with four people associated with him who may have been exposed. They are undergoing testing. 

While Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a slow-growing bacterium, it can be fatal if left untreated. But Phillips said it’s relatively easy (if time-consuming) to treat and cure. And it’s quite possible that no one else in the county was infected. 

“At this point we don’t have reason to believe that the individual was highly contagious,” Phillips said. 

Nonetheless, anyone who has concerns or believes they may have been exposed is encouraged to call Phillips at (707) 268-2169.

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