2 cases of active tuberculosis linked to San Francisco strip club

A downtown San Francisco strip club is now part of a public health investigation into the spread of tuberculosis, a potentially deadly bacterial disease, city public health officials told NBC Bay Area.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said it was investigating two confirmed cases at Crazy Horse, a Market Street strip club that has been open for more than three decades.

The first confirmed case was in early October, the department said, after which it began investigating who else might have been infected.

“These efforts continue and at this time the risk to the general public is low,” the ministry said in a statement. “If this status changes, we will notify the public.”

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease, which usually attacks the lungs, and appears in active and latent forms. The illness may remain hidden for a while without any symptoms until it becomes contagious and serious.

Symptoms of TB can include coughing up blood, coughing for more than three weeks, fatigue and unintentional weight loss.

Contracting it requires prolonged exposure to a contagious person. The bacteria is airborne and transmission could be higher in crowded, poorly ventilated places, experts said.

Experts said contract tracing could take some time before the city provides updates because the bacteria that causes tuberculosis grows slowly.

“They’ll do some testing and probably repeat the testing in a few weeks, because again, sometimes the tests can be negative, but because (the bacteria) grows so slowly, that test could potentially turn positive if there was a true infection,” said Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.

Chin-Hong cautioned against concluding that an outbreak had occurred, considering it possible that the two cases were not even linked and could have been infected separately from other locations.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said it is important for people at risk of tuberculosis to get tested and treated.

The California Post has contacted the strip club for comment.

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