An epidemiological and social network analysis to assess transmission during a tuberculosis homeless shelter outbreak in San Joaquin County

<p>Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most deadly diseases worldwide. In the United States, TB disproportionately affects foreign-born individuals, individuals living in congregate settings, people with human immunodeficiency virus, and people who use illicit drugs. In 2005, a large homeless shelter outbreak in San Joaquin County resulted in 67 individuals diagnosed with TB with links to a homeless shelter. It is hypothesized that by using bed analysis to identify contacts that have been exposed to TB during this outbreak will allow for better identification of exposed high-risk individuals than screening alone. Demographics, exposure, screening, and QuantiFERON-Tuberculosis results were analyzed using bed assignments from the homeless shelter database and data from a homeless shelter screening (HSS) program. Individuals diagnosed with active TB disease were on average more likely to be identified through bed analysis than HSS, 95.08% versus 59.02%. Utilizing both bed analysis and HSS allows for improvement of identification and continuous testing of individuals exposed to TB.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.S.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Yates, Sarah M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Craig A. Vierra

• Homeless persons Medical care
• Social network analysis
• Tuberculosis Prevention and control
• Life Sciences

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/822

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarlycommons.pacific.edu:uop_etds-1821