Three people with unrelated cases of tuberculosis — including one who later died from “co-occurring medical conditions” — may have exposed others to the infectious bacterial disease over the past several months at three local detention facilities and one of San Diego’s tented bridge shelters, county health officials said Thursday.

According to the county Health and Human Services Agency, the person who died had been diagnosed with TB in Long Beach, but left a hospital without permission and traveled to San Diego.

At some point, that person ended up at the city of San Diego’s bridge shelter on 16th Street and Newton Avenue in Barrio Logan, which is operated by the nonprofit homeless service provider Alpha Project.

Health officials said the period of potential exposure at the shelter was between Aug. 20 and Sept. 9.


County officials said that as of Thursday, there were no confirmed cases of exposure to tuberculosis at any of the city’s bridge shelters.

“Even though the County’s investigation determined the individual contracted the disease outside San Diego, traveled from Long Beach and only spent a short time here, we are taking every precaution at the direction of and in cooperation with the County’s medical professionals,” San Diego Deputy Chief Operating Officer Bob Vacchi said in a statement.

The person who had TB while at the Alpha Project shelter died at a hospital Oct. 6 “from co-occurring medical conditions,” health officials said.

County officials did not provide the person’s name, age, gender or details about their other medical conditions.


Alpha Project President and CEO Bob McElroy said county officials arrived at the bridge shelter just after bed-check at 8 p.m. Thursday to tell people about the situation.

“Nobody panicked,” McElroy said. “We’ve been through this before.”

McElroy said another TB scare occurred four or five years ago when the Alpha Project operated a winter shelter at the same site on Newton Avenue. At that time, no one tested at the tent was found to have TB.

Voluntary tests will be available Friday and Monday at the shelter. On Friday, testing for residents and volunteers will be held from 6 a.m. to noon, and again from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.


McElroy said he planned on getting checked himself.

The other confirmed tuberculosis cases may have exposed San Diego County inmates and San Diego Sheriff’s Department staff at three detention facilities.

Health officials said the periods of potential exposure were:

Between Aug. 20 and Sept. 6 at the San Diego Central Jail in downtown San Diego

Between Sept. 6 and Sept. 15 at George Bailey Detention Facility east of Otay Mesa

Between Oct. 16 and Oct. 18 at Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, the women’s detention center in Santee

Health officials said they are working with Sheriff’s Department officials to notify anyone who might have been exposed to the disease. The Sheriff’s Department is offering free testing to its staff and all identified people in custody at those locations during those dates.


“Testing is recommended for people who were exposed to assure they are not infected, since initial infection usually has no symptoms,” Wilma Wooten, the county’s chief public health officer, said in a statement. “For any infected individuals, early diagnosis and prompt treatment can prevent the infectious form of the disease.”

TB is transmitted from person to person through indoor air during prolonged contact with an infectious individual, according to health officials, who said that most people who are exposed do not become infected.

Symptoms of active TB include persistent cough, fever, night sweats and unexplained weight loss, health officials said. Tuberculosis can be treated and cured with antibiotics.

There were 237 TB cases reported in the county in 2017 and 226 in 2018. As of Thursday, 179 cases had been reported in 2019.


Anyone who would like more information about potential exposure is asked to call the San Diego County TB Control Program at (619) 692-8621 or Sheriff’s Department Infection Control at (858) 974-5971.