960 babies exposed to TB at San Francisco hospital

Kaiser Permanente has discovered that a worker at San Francisco Medical Center had an active case of tuberculosis and may have exposed 960 babies to the disease. The worker, who was a part-time night-shift employee who worked at Kaiser from March 10 to August 10 and is no longer an employee, was assigned to the postpartum unit in the maternity ward of the hospital. Kaiser is notifying the babies' mothers of the risk, which experts say is very low but still requires notification. Kaiser is also notifying 115 employees who might have been exposed to the disease. Kaiser will test and if need be, treat any patient who comes up positive. In the unlikely event that a patient has become infected, the TB strain involved is one that responds will to antibiotics, Kaiser officials noted.

To learn more about the TB scare:
- read this piece from the San Francisco Chronicle